Whatever the reason for her poor behavior, your gut reaction will probably be to clean house and terminate the problem employee right away. This will stop an ADEA unlawful separation claim. This is not an easy task but, for the sake of the company and esprit de corps of the workplace, you should replace a poor performer with an effective one.

The jobholder illegally harasses others. When using an employee discipline form you not only tell the bad worker that their behavior is unacceptable, but you also have a written documentation of the issues. While you should treat these excuses with a certain degree of fairness, use your worker handbook and guideline policies to your advantage. You communicated with the jobholder, explained behaviors that violated policy and outlined actions they needed to take to correct their behavior. The moral of this story is only document when you are terminating (and disciplining) for a legitimate and legal reason. This may be necessary when the senior worker's performance problem is the division's results. o Extended insurance coverage (Life, disability and so on.) Of course, getting the ex-worker's signature on the package will stop any expensive litigation regarding his employment. Without paperwork or physical evidence to back reasons for termination, you're opening a window for separated employees to claim illegal layoff. Otherwise, an attorney-at-law will argue the job elimination was a pretext to the "real" improper reason. Your worker might have a valid reason for not performing a certain task. With an early retirement package, you give an increased package of severance benefits when the older employee voluntarily retires.