This topic was presented by Elizabeth Schrey. It has been edited slightly. I am sure that many of you have handled difficult terminations in the past. What suggestions do you have?
I took over supervising our student assistants and most of the current students were in place when I took over. I am having an issue with one of these student workers. I set up a one on one with him to address issues of critical thinking, professionalism, language and so on. He has shown some improvement, but is still so far behind where we need him to be. I have had several trainings and one on ones and nothing is working. He just does not seem to get it and/or care. I am at my wits end. I am going to have to let him go. However, I do not want to leave him in the lurch. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to fire a student? I want to be able to provide him with resources and other opportunities that better fit his skills. He is very task oriented and needs a lot of structure. I am thinking the ROTC might be up his alley. Thoughts?
This may or may not fit with your timeline, but….
I have occasionally handled similar situations by terminating employment at the end of a term or academic year. If the latter and they were not going to work over the summer, it’s tantamount to not hiring them back for the subsequent school year. In fact, I often phrase it that way. This deadens the impact professionally, personally, and financially. I’m honest about the reason, but I let the student know that I am working with them to help make the transition easier for them.
Of course that may not work in your situation.
I have had a similar experience as Elizabeth and much like James. I also had a thought of an opportunity more suitable for the student, but I think that they had a difficult time actually listening to suggestions from me at that point.
Unfortunately, it is still awkward interacting with students I have had to let go. When they leave on their own accord, future interactions have been much easier.
The comment below was submitted by Richard Daniels. It touches a bit on the subject of social medial in the work place that was presented in June.
I was surprised by a student worker who brought her Kindle to work and assumed she could work (processing outgoing mail) and read her Kindle at the same time. I would have been interested to hear her rationale but didn’t ask. It put me on the alert for other types of behavior like this and got me thinking about how to thwart this kind of behavior in the future.
From Chris Lonigan: Have other supervisors dealt with student workers bringing books (electronic or otherwise) and expecting to read them at work? Did you give verbal or written warnings? Do you have policies that allow student workers to do homework or personal reading during work time.