How do we let go of an employee in our situation...?
 

Edit: Title should say "How would YOU let go of an employee in our situation...?"

Our programmer has been with us for three months now and has just about reached the end of his probationary period. He has been editing sample videos from the content we bought for a few weeks now and up until now had no problem with it. Suddenly he sends an e-mail saying that he can no longer edit our 'disgusting' movies (disgusting meaning it shows penis and vagina :/) and that he will only work 5 hours a day to edit little bits at a time until it is finished because watching all that sex makes him feel sick - the guy grew up in Japan and apparently is more comfortable with the mosaic censorship. After our manager responded that that was his job and he was going to edit the videos during full work hours, our programmer got up and yelled at him and said that he couldn't make him do that. He then proceeded to say that he never knew that our company was adult content oriented when he was hired and that nobody ever told him and that he has proof of it, threatening to sue us. This of course is a lie, as he was told right from the interview process what the programming job entails and what content we work with, and that it was primarily going to be uncensored content.

So my question is not whether or not to fire the guy - he is getting fired for sure. The question is when and how. We're still starting up our websites and so far he is our only programmer. If we let him go now without another programmer lined up then the business will be stalled for who knows how long until we find another one to take his place. Plus, he could decide to retaliate and delete the database, search engine, and all the stuff he made for the sites already, then all our progress is lost. However, if we wait to get another programmer ready to take his place before we fire the guy, there's no telling what sort of damage he can do to us within that time frame. He has already threatened to sue the company. We paid for his flight from Michigan to Southern California after we accepted him for the job. Could we just fire him based on his conduct without getting in trouble? I'm wondering if he can possibly sue for that by saying we made him move away from his home state and then just fired him out of nowhere leaving him with nothing and nowhere to go.

We already told this guy that he is welcome to search for another job but he says he wants to stay with us, it's really strange.

We're going to speak to a lawyer about our options so we're not basing our choice of action based on the responses on this thread. Just curious to see what others would do in this scenario and if anyone else has encountered something like this before.

Thanks.

i would just fire him.

wait till after hours, change all his access and pws and can him. it would be more costly to your business to keep him around to line up another one then to axe him and star the search. plus i think it would be pretty easy to get a half decent programmer.

question why is a programmer editing content?

I'd be fucked off too if I was hired as a programmer and then told to do monkey work editing videos.

Too many badly formatted words. Just fire him/her/it.

Because he offered to do so until we hire a video editor. He was saying how easy the job is and how he could do it without trouble. Then after 100 videos suddenly he's flipping out. This guy is unstable.

This....

:thumbsup
that's really the only way to play it, if you keep him around longer, you will just dig yourself a deeper and deeper hole...

sounds like gilligan's fucking island

maybe he is just burnt out and needs a couple of days holiday to calm down?

You start your post by stating, "Our programmer...has been editing sample videos".

Who the fuck hires a programmer to edit videos? You hired him to complete one skilled task and have him doing a completely different skilled task that has NOTHING to do with what you hired him to do.

If I was him, I'd fire you. You're the idiot.

If he was hired as a programmer and you're not using him as a programmer, he most certainly has a legal leg to stand on.

Again, I think you're a fucking idiot.

He's already done the programming, fucktard. There's currently nothing else for him to do until we get content uploaded and he said that he wanted to be the one to edit them for the site.

I was under the impression that there doesn't need to be an excuse for letting an employee go during his probationary period, thats what it is for? You can just say that its not working out and you are cancelling his contract. Pay out any holidays / sick days / benefits he has generated during that time and that should be the end of it.

As already mentioned, change all pw, logins ect of sensitive data after hours / day before you let him go. If he causes any damages, then I beleive you have the right to sue him for the costs incurred by any damages he does due to his dismissal. Aways best to consult your lawyer for the correct procedures but this is what I have always understood as the correct way to go about it. :2 cents:

:1orglaugh

seriously tho, just fire him after you change all his PWs and forget he existed.

I will add one thing ... if your legal counsel/attorney is local to you, and this employee is "in house" ... bring the attorney into your place of business, to help you deliver this employee the termination notice.

The termination letter should be brief and factual. If an employee is terminated for cause the letter should itemize the reason(s) for the firing.

When the employee is laid off or employment is terminated without a reason given (employment at will) the termination letter should provide information on benefits and severance provided, if any, and an ending date of employment (which should be effective immediately).

Good luck and remember Good Riddance!

Fire him for unprofessional office conduct (the screaming in the office and screaming at his superior).

Anyone can sue for anything though, whether they win or not, it still costs $.

So long as you don't have a contract with him do as others have said. Wait until he goes home for the day, change all his access to your system the fire him.

It sounds like you made it clear you were an adult company during the interview. I get the feeling he either has issues or he changed his mind about working for an adult company. Whatever the reason you don't owe him anything. If it is in your budget you could always offer buy him a ticket back to Michigan.

Fire him or hire a video guy so he can focus on the programming and stop crying.

1. he volunteered to edit porn content
2. he edited 100 videos

3. he decides that this job is disgusting

Personality disorder of some kind? Does not make any sense otherwise.

tldr tldr

It shouldn't matter if he finds it disgusting or not. He was hired to program. He should go back to programming. Simple as that.

And you're still a bunch of idiots over there. Come back to this thread in 18 months and I'd bet your company is dead. :1orglaugh

An internet tough guy from New York calling someone else an idiot... oh the irony.

Why don't you get him to waste his time posting here, and you can edit your own videos.

Because I'm an employee whose job isn't to edit videos.

What is your job?

Graphic design.

im sorry....
i don't understand... if he is still in probation then why are we having this discussion?!?!?!

just fire his ass. say his work doesn't match the demands of the job.

This.

Seems like he was under the impression he was being hired as a programer in an adult related company.
As a programer one can work with codes only and rarely view adult content. Sure there will be occasional times, but not 8hrs a day 5 days a week. He volunteer to do editing since there were not many programing to do at the moment, then realized he cant handle that many porn. So either let him go or don't let him do the editing.

IMO he has a leg to stand on, if I was in your managers shoes I would say ok well until we have more work for you I need to cut your hrs.
:2 cents:

Now to answer your question on ow to fire him, well Find a freelance programer and have him or her change the settings so your programer has no access to the server. Also you should be backing all this up in a HD outside of the server.
First thing in the morning sit him down tell him he is terminated with an explanation of why. HAnd him his last paycheck and look for another programer/video editor. (if you can find one willing to do both).

Give him more Programming tasks then.
I draw a very clear line between tasks I give our employees because there is people that don't like to watch that but they do not mind building the backend stuff.
Start looking for a new guy and be upfront with them from the start

They can't fire him because they need programming work done, but even though they need all this programming done, they have him wasting time on videos.

Meanwhile, the graphic designer says he wouldn't edit videos because it's not his job, yet the programmer is expected to do exactly that.

This makes exactly no sense.

Probation is just that,he isn't working out.hit the bricks

I would fire him immediately. He's refusing to do the work he was hired for. If you're looking for a reliable programmer based in the So. Cal area, let me know!

Good luck with this...

Sounds like a mechanic at a gas station/garage unwilling to pump gas when there are no cars to repair.
Fire his ass...

Is this the same guy that you had problems with a few months ago? If so, this is why you should have fired him a few months ago.

Even though you think you need him, you don't. You can find another person. Once again he is screwing up your flow. That is not good.

1) The programming for the first site is all done. The company I'm at isn't even touching programming for other sites yet because we still haven't purchased content for them or even decided on themes yet. That's programming he'll have to do later down the line. Right now there's absolutely nothing else for him to do and he wants to be in the office on work days.

2) The programmer is expected to do the video editing because he volunteered for it and is already half way done with the editing. Wouldn't you be pissed if someone started a project and then stopped suddenly and told you to do it?

his probationary period is almost up?

Simple.

Change his access, disable his accounts, and then tell him that it's not a good mutual fit and his contract won't be extended.

You can find a decent video editor easily enough, I'd imagine.

Wouldn't you be pissed if you were hired as a graphic designer and they told you do edit videos? Evidently, since you don't want to do it.

What you're saying is the guy stepped up when you and everyone else were too lazy or disinterested to do it, and when he gets tired of it, rather than pitching in and doing your share you're acting like he broke his contract. Was he hired to edit porn, or to do programming?

Programming, but you don't start something and then just drop it and mess with the flow of business. Other people already have things to do in the office and can't be expected to pick up for a guy who is whining about porn making him feel sick when he's working in the adult industry for Christ's sake. Not only that, but he yelled at the manager and refused to have a seat when he invited him in his office, showing he has no respect for office hierarchy.

He's refusing to do the job he was hired for. Fire him, walk him to the door, and hand him his final check. Done.