Terminating a senior employee for performance reasons is rarely just about the payout. In conversations across the HR community, one recurring theme keeps surfacing: the biggest legal risk in a performance-based exit is not the notice pay or the gratuity calculation, it is the absence of a documented performance improvement plan. Without one, months or years of verbal feedback can amount to very little if the decision is ever challenged.<\/p>\n
This tension played out clearly in a recent discussion started by an HR professional dealing with exactly this situation: a senior employee with long-standing performance concerns, multiple verbal conversations over time, but no formal PIP ever initiated. Leadership had decided to proceed with a direct separation anyway, paying salary in lieu of notice. The question she brought to the community was narrower than it first appeared, and the answers she got reshaped it entirely.<\/p>\n