the right employee to the wrong job

[coolboss]

hi, i am new here, but i hope some of you could help me here, i have hired a lovely lady to be my PA about 7 weeks ago. she came with great references, and i was really glad to have someone to help me, but OMG, she is just useless, i sit every evening correcting her mistakes and doing damage control, it is costing me so much money and the embarrassment!
she is forgetful, religiously late, and is having endless financial and family problems, she hardly concentrates on her job.

i dont want to start with the whole disciplinary procedure, as soon as she finds out she is going to be fired, she can cause so much more damage to my business. i just want to pay her to go.
i know i will have to pay, but my question is, how much, what is the correct procedure?
thank you in advance for the help.

[Mike C]

Hi Coolboss. Welcome to the Forum.

Did you have her sign a contract when you employed her? I'm sure the legal buffs in this forum will advise you about the correct way to do things, but I think that it is always a good idea to employ someone with a trial period of a few weeks during which you can both suss each other out and then review.

References should also always be checked out with the person who wrote the reference - as you may pick up something verbally that was not put in writing. Let's face it if you want to get rid of someone you are not going to give a bad reference or that person won't find other employement and you are stuck with that person until you have to fire them.

I always find that is is better to have a sit-down and a heart to heart about expectations etc before you go the disciplinary route, as you can express your unhappiness at the way she is performing and set the standards for the future.

Good luck! I am sure someone else from this forum will have some sound advice about the next step.

[AndyD]

Welcome to the forum Coolboss.

Is she not on a trial period? Have you spoken with her about her performance and punctuality?

If she's no longer on a trial period I would imagine you would need to go the official redundency route.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

If she is in the probation period, the onus on what to do is reduced and you can probably by pass the whole poor work performance routine.

If she is past this 3 month period then you will either reed to follow poor work performance procedures OR
if there has been deception via her CV or references then a misconduct hearing. (the quicker route)

Regarding poor work performance: the nature of a position and a persons training bears much weight. Example; one is not expected to teach a qualified accountant to balance the petty cash, but with a bookkeeper of 3 years experience you possibly need to afford an opportunity to correct the inability. Hence the nature of the mistakes and her qualifications will be integral to determining how much, if any training, is required.