- 1). Study your state and local laws. If you live within a "smoke-free workplace" region, you may fire an employee simply for smoking within your designated workplace.
- 2). Pull the employee's record to see whether she signed an agreement not to smoke within the designated workplace. Regardless of whether your state requires smoke-free workplaces, employees who violate agreements to which they consented may be terminated for doing so.
- 3). Get written statements from other employees regarding their colleague's violations if you have not personally seen him smoking yourself. You cannot fire an employee for hearsay.
- 4). Discuss with the employee privately. If this is her first offense, offer her an oral and/or written warning. If she's serious about her job, this reprimand should encourage her not to smoke inside the workplace--and best of all, you won't lose an employee. If she violates the warning, meet with her again and explain to her that you're going to terminate her employment.
- 5). Prepare a written document explaining the employee's history of smoking offenses, actions you took to correct the problem before termination and any severance or paid-time-off reimbursement you want to offer him on the way out. Sign the document and present the employee with it so that he can acknowledge his termination.
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