Test Yourself

This section offers ten multiple-choice questions to help you identify your baseline knowledge of dismissal essentials. Answers to the questions are given at the end of the test.

1. To dismiss an employee is to:
   1. Terminate an individual’s employment with a company owing to inadequacies or problems with his or her performance or behavior.
   2. Terminate an individual’s employment with a company owing to the firm’s desire to take a new strategic direction or cut costs.
   3. Terminate an individual’s employment with the company owing to the fact that the worker and his or her manager do not get along on a personal level.
2. Which of the following statements would not be appropriate to make when explaining to your team why someone was dismissed?
   1. Julia was dismissed because she was chronically late and abused sick leave privileges.
   2. Max was dismissed after many months of unsuccessful attempts to improve his performance.
   3. Trevor was dismissed because he falsified expense reports and could no longer be trusted.
3. Putting a problem employee on probation means:
   1. Putting the employee on a paid or unpaid leave from work, during which he or she must create a plan for addressing the problem performance or behavior, clarify expectations, and establish new goals.
   2. Temporarily suspending certain workplace benefits (such as flextime or the opportunity to work from home) until the employee can demonstrate that he or she has corrected his or her problem performance or behavior.
   3. Issuing an oral and written warning to the employee in which you set a date by which he or she must improve the problem performance or behavior; the warning then gets documented and stored in the employee’s personnel file.
4. True or false: You must provide a reference for a dismissed employee if he or she (or if a potential new employer) asks for one.
   1. True.
   2. False.
5. Which of the following statements would not be appropriate to make when dismissing an employee?
   1. “The job hasn’t worked out. You’ve continued to have unexcused absences over the past several months.”
   2. “The job hasn’t worked out. We set new sales goals for you six months ago, and you still haven’t met them.”
   3. “The job just has not worked out. We need someone who can project a high-energy, up-and-coming image.”
6. In many companies, which of the following employee behaviors might constitute grounds for immediate dismissal?
   1. An employee arrives at the office late several times in one week.
   2. An employee steals a computer from his or her department.
   3. An employee gossips with other workers on several occasions in one week.
7. There are certain employee behaviors for which a manager cannot legally dismiss the worker. Which of the following behaviors does not fall into that category?
   1. The employee has taken time off from work to vote.
   2. The employee has filed several workers’ compensation claims.
   3. The employee makes unwelcome, repeated sexual jokes during team meetings.
8. When you have to dismiss an employee, it’s best to break the news to him or her in a private setting. Of the statements listed below, which of the following constitutes the most important reason for conducting the meeting in private?
   1. If other employees see or hear what’s happening, they may worry that they’re next in line to be dismissed.
   2. If other employees see or hear what’s happening, they may criticize the dismissed employee afterward, worsening his or her pain.
   3. If other employees see or hear what’s happening, they may immediately protest the decision if they consider the dismissed employee their friend.
9. If you have to dismiss someone, when should you deliver the news to the person?
   1. As late in the work day as possible on a Friday afternoon.
   2. As early in the day as possible during the middle of the workweek.
   3. In the afternoon on a Monday.
10. Which of the following do not constitute important parts of leading your team after a dismissal?
    1. Reassuring remaining team members that the dismissal had nothing to do with their own performance as individuals or as a team.
    2. Celebrating the fact that the team can now function more smoothly because the problem worker has been removed.
    3. Ensuring that the former employee’s skills are represented in the group and that his or her work is redistributed fairly among remaining team members.