1. Get all the facts. Ask yourself, are you basing your decision on someone else's complaint, or are you basing your decision on the complaint as well as the employee's response to the complaint.

2. Decide the reasons performance is not adequate. Ask yourself, is this person properly matched for the job, for your office, for you as a manager? Is this person simply lacking skills and information, or have you simply not had the time to transfer those skills and information?

3. Decide the reasons the misconduct occurred. Focus on behavior and not what you perceive to be the employee's “attitude.” Behavior should be measurable, whereas most descriptions of “bad attitude” are not.

4. Decide whether you want to document the performance, misconduct in writing. If you give written notice to the employee as to the reasons for termination (and you are not legally required to detail the reasons), you must describe the misconduct as “willful” in order to avoid being hit with unemployment insurance costs.

5. Did you observe the “strike zone” rule during this person's employment? If you ever made physical contact with your employee, did you and others make certain you touched the person outside the traditional baseball “strike zone?”

6. Determine what is your business reason for taking the action. When you take a dramatic action involving an employee, ask yourself the reason that action will benefit the firm, its clients, its operations, and write the reason(s) down.

7. Call an expert when special issues arise. Some issues involving wages, compliance with unemployment regulations, responding to government complaints, and how to respond to employee accusation letters need an expert's opinion. Get that opinion.