Why Does HR Make It So Hard To Fire People? - Part 2

What It Covers

Manager Tools hosts Mark and Sarah explain why the "HR won't let you fire anyone" myth exists, tracing it to managers who fail to document behavioral evidence over time. HR rightfully requires contemporaneous notes, behavioral proof, and documented feedback before approving termination — standards most managers never meet before approaching HR.

Key Questions Answered

• •Contemporaneous Documentation: Write behavioral notes the same day incidents occur — not weeks later. A handwritten note stating "Robert Smith missed the 10PM deadline; documents not received until 12:30PM" is legally sufficient. Courts accept handwritten, informal notes as valid evidence. Retroactive documentation created after the fact carries no legal weight in wrongful termination proceedings.
• •75–100 Feedback Instances: Before pursuing termination, managers should accumulate 75 to 100 documented instances of negative feedback. Each exchange takes only 10–20 seconds, meaning the entire feedback investment totals roughly 30 minutes of conversation. Volume of small, consistent, documented interactions outweighs any single lengthy performance review in legal proceedings.
• •One-on-One Notes as Legal Evidence: Weekly one-on-one meetings with consistent note-taking create a powerful termination defense. A manager with 75 one-on-one sessions, each containing sticky-note feedback records, produced enough documentation to have a wrongful termination case dismissed in court. Judges respond to volume and consistency of documented communication over time.
• •Systemic Feedback Escalation: After seven instances of the same repeated behavioral failure without improvement, managers should escalate from individual feedback to the Manager Tools Systemic Feedback Model. This structured escalation tool signals formal performance deterioration, generates additional contemporaneous documentation, and strengthens the case HR needs before approving a termination decision.
• •Performance Improvement Plans as Genuine Tools: PIPs exist to improve performance, not solely to build a termination file. Managers should explicitly tell the employee they want the situation to succeed, commit to more frequent measurement, and pursue the process with stated optimism. HR views a completed PIP with full documentation as meeting the organizational standard required to proceed with termination.