Section Fourpersonnel to their desks to pick up their personal property, and
then taken to the door. Although often related to fears that the
terminated employee will sabotage a computer system or other
company assets, this rationale is not always applicable.^80 The
following examples are more typical of termination actions than
they should be.
A supervisor at a tractor plant in Dubuque, Iowa,
got the ax while he was on vacation. “He got a
call at home. Company officials told him to meet
them in the parking lot of a local fast-food
restaurant. He got in his boss’s car and [his boss]
read him a brief notice,” says Earl Payson, a
lawyer who represented the client in an age-
discrimination suit against the same company.
“They wouldn’t answer any questions. My client
had been with the company for over 25 years.”^81My own son was terminated [recently] by an
advertising company with a note on the door. It
said, ‘You’re fired. Come and see me.’ It was
signed by his boss.^82Although the literature on terminations is largely
prescriptive and anecdotal, there are some practical guidelines.
One is that terminations should be conducted as business