Defensible Terminations: 

Getting Employee Classification Right Before It Costs You

Most terminations don’t lead to legal claims—but when they do, the outcome is often determined by what was documented long before the termination decision was made.

Too often, leaders rely on inconsistent documentation, vague feedback, or last-minute write-ups that don’t reflect the full picture. That creates gaps—and those gaps create risk.

In this session, we walk through how to document performance, behavior, and decision-making in a way that is clear, consistent, and defensible. You’ll learn how to build a record over time, not just at the point of termination, so your decisions are supported if they’re ever questioned.

This session focuses on helping you approach terminations with structure and confidence—so you’re not scrambling to justify decisions after the fact.

This session is for you if:

• You’ve had to terminate an employee and weren’t sure if your documentation was strong enough
• You’re managing performance issues but haven’t documented them consistently
• You want to avoid creating documentation that works against you
• You’re responsible for guiding or approving termination decisions

When documentation is incomplete, inconsistent, or created too late, it weakens your position. Strong documentation creates alignment between what happened, what was communicated, and the decision that was made.