As a business owner, you take every step you can to hire only quality employees. You check references, conduct background checks, and host multiple interviews to make sure that each person you’re bringing on board is trustworthy enough to represent your brand. Unfortunately, even with your best efforts, you can’t guarantee that every employee will work out. 

Despite looking great on paper, even well-referenced, experienced employees sometimes end up doing nefarious things, and getting you embroiled in the malpractice you’ve always tried to avoid. If that happens, you’ll want to get rid of that person as soon as possible. But, they won’t always be happy to go. 

Scorned employees, especially those who know they’ve done wrong, may take against your business and attempt to bring you down with them. That could cause untold damage and is best avoided by taking the following vital steps. 

# 1 – Seek Immediate Legal Advice

As a business owner, it’s always wise to outsource some sort of legal counsel, and you shouldn’t hesitate to seek it in this instance. Sometimes, a scorned employee will either take legal action against you or make false allegations about their treatment. Ensure their quest doesn’t reflect badly on you by showing all evidence to your lawyers as soon as you fire the employee in question. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re taking any active legal action, but it still allows you to prepare your defenses if that employee decides to. 

# 2 – Revoke Privileges Business-Wide

Angered employees may use any remaining privileges to go after you. This might include accessing and copying restricted files they were working on, or even using keycards or identification to continue entering your offices. Avoid this by taking immediate steps to revoke permissions, and make sure that everyone in your company is aware this person no longer works for you. In particular, you’ll need to ensure secure file sharing by immediately revoking that person’s access to vital documents, as continued sharing could result in notable security and confidentiality breaches. Equally, disable any access cards, and leave a note with your building security to keep an eye out.

# 3 – Inform Your Clients Immediately

It’s important not to let business drama trickle into your client interactions. However, if the employee in question was the point of contact for a particular file, there’s a risk they’ll contact your clients outside of your remit. So, you need to inform clients immediately if a colleague is no longer working on their project. Of course, it’s not wise to go into any details. Simply make sure you send an email to all relevant parties informing them of that client’s absence from their interactions moving forward, as well as new contact details that make it clear who they’ll be dealing with from that point on. 

It’s never pleasant dealing with an employee who not only does wrong but also won’t go quietly. However, with these steps, you should be easily able to manage what could be an unpleasant situation otherwise.