Firing and Discipline Interview

Firing/Discipline Interview Questions

For my firing and discipline interview this week that I had to conduct, I chose to interview a friend that works as a general manager of a local fast food chain that serves chicken.  My team came up with 15 questions for our interviews.

1.     Who is involved in the discipline interview?

Usually, he likes to have himself and the employee as well as the specific day staff management (day shift or night shift manager), operations manager, or shift supervisors as a last option if the other managers are unavailable. 

2.     Do you try to work things out with the employee, such as a transfer or leave of absence, before termination?

My friend is a big fan of trying to work with his employees and trying to find a resolution of the problem.  Because he is the general manager of 4 separate locations, he has been able to transfer an employee and make it beneficial for all parties.  Some times it is a change of scenery that will benefit the employee greatly, so they feel fresh and alive and it has extended a number of employment opportunities for multiple employees.  Normally, termination is such a hassle, so it can be easier to keep an employee than start over with training. 

3.     How do you start a firing/disciplinary interview?

This depends on what meeting it is.  Most of the time, the employee is aware what is going on.  He said the he usually starts out by discussing a last meeting that took place between the employee and he and his management staff.  If this is the first meeting between the employee and his management staff and him, then he will start by talking about the good things that the employee does and then discuss the problem area. 

4.     What is the most common reason you have to perform a firing/disciplinary interview?

There have been a number of reasons for having to do a firing or disciplinary interview.  He said the most common reason is related to the age of the employees that he has.  He mostly works with young employees and the biggest reasons are violations of certain policies involving timeliness and attitude. 

5.     Are there times where a disciplinary interview is just a formality, always leading to firing?

He doesn’t believe in formalities.  He tries to be a mentor to the employees that he has, especially due to their young ages, for most of the employees.  Therefore, he takes each and every possible change to help them in any way that he can. 

6.     How often is a formal disciplinary interview necessary, where an informal reprimand would not suffice?

Formal disciplinary interviews are necessary when any sort of informal reprimand does not suffice. He tries to work with all of his employees, but sometimes they are unwilling to work with him or even themselves. 

7.     What day of the week is best for firing or disciplining employees?

Disciplining for the most part can be done on any day, but his only rule of thumb is to try not to do a firing on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  He prefers the early part of the week.  This allows the employee to hopefully find something during the rest of that week to be able to move past the firing. 

8.     Under what circumstance would you discipline two employees differently from the same action of misconduct?

This is a tricky question.  The circumstances would depend on the misconduct and how many times a violation has taken place by each employee.  For example, a new employee of a few months that has been late almost every shift for the past 3 weeks and has been talked to repeatedly about this will be dealt with differently than a model employee that has been with the company for 15 years and hasn’t been late for a shift in over 8 years. 

9.     How do you make employees aware of expected behavior and guidelines?

They are given an employee handbook and a policies and procedure book when they are hired on.  They also go through orientation and the expectations are again repeated.  They are also discussed each time in is deemed necessary by any of the management team. 

10.  If an employee violates a company policy, do you feel it is necessary to give appropriate disciplinary action in a timely manner?

Timely manner is one of his biggest things that he pushes for.  He said, that is how actions get rectified and people don’t assume they are being reprimanded for a separate issue.  He said that you have to be very timely in making swift decisions and executing the plan of any sort of disciplinary action. 

11.  Where do you usually discipline employees?

In his office behind closed doors.  My friend said that no one else needs to know what is being said or dealt with and so he never does this in front of another non essential personnel, and most definitely not in a public place.

12.  Do you find yourself frequently disciplining employees or are the majority of employee’s complaint with policies?

Policy mishaps are, again, probably the biggest reasons that he is having to discipline an employee. 

13.  What is the most difficult aspect of having the responsibility to discipline or fire employees?

Firing employees is very difficult.  He works with a number of adolescents and so he likes to give the benefit of the doubt in working with these young men and women.   He feels that he is a mentor for the youth and feels that he has let them down when it gets to the point of having to let them down.

14.  Do managers in your company receive any formal training on how to handle disciplinary situations?

No.  They do not receive any formal training.  He does like to involve the other management team in each and every time that he does anything like this to make sure they do get exposure to it, but no training. 

15.  Is it important to have another person in the room when an employee is fired? Why or why not?

Usually, he likes to have himself and the employee as well as the specific day staff management (day shift or night shift manager), operations manager, or shift supervisors as a last option if the other managers are unavailable.  This is a multi-part reason.  First, for the legal reasons.  Second, to make sure that it doesn’t get out of control, and lastly, for exposure for the other management member. 

My friend said that it is important to not just jump straight to termination.  Termination is a very complex process and lots of documentation needs to be obtained. There needs to be concrete reasons for firing. First, an improvement plan needs to be implemented.  There are always going to be people complaining of someone but shouldn't result in termination. But if the situation is serious enough then he would act and hopefully something positive will come out of it.  Ultimately he is there for the whole team and not just the individual.  If the employee is a bad egg then sometimes it is better for the person to be transferred, fired or laid off.

From this interview, I learned that firing and disciplining employees is a difficult situation.  The manager or boss doesn't want to be in the position with the employee either.  I learned that a lot rides on the performance appraisals that are done each year.  It is important that we identify our weaknesses so that we can improve on them.  Each company has a different way of disciplining employees.  I hope I'm never put in a position that I'm having to discipline employees or am getting disciplined.