I once had a manager who was in his sixties, but his brain was already showing signs of slipping. He had trouble staying organized and retaining information. If he was fixated on a particular issue, you only had to wait a day, and he would have forgotten all about it and moved onto something else.
Thankfully, he made the decision on his own (sort of) to retire as soon as he turned 65 and was eligible for Medicare benefits. I say “sort of” because what seemed to finally persuade him to retire was a new project manager who started keeping close track of the projects assigned to him, including what he finished (not much) and what was still incomplete.
What happens when an employee is showing signs of not being able to keep up with their work anymore, but they don’t acknowledge it? Is there a way of facilitating a departure without running afoul of employment laws?
I found a post on Chron by Lindsay Kramer that outlines legitimate reasons to terminate an employee—one you want to release from employment not because of age, but because they no longer are able to competently do their jobs.
Those legitimate reasons include:
- The employee’s poor workplace performance
- The employee’s inability to improve their performance despite coaching and counseling
- The employee’s habitual tardiness
- The employee’s mistreatment of colleagues, vendors, or customers
- Violations of the workplace code of conduct
- Insubordination
- Illegal actions on the employee’s part, such as stealing work supplies
Track their Productivity
In the case of my now-retired manager, he ultimately made the decision to retire since he was finally being held to account. Sometimes that’s all it takes for a lackluster employee to choose to move on—a person in the organization who starts closely tracking their work.
Millennials and Generation Z employees have a reputation for leaving companies after just one or two years of employment. Employees of older generations, however, may be more inclined to just stay put as long as an organization will have them. That means many older employees have been with their company for decades.
I know of employees now nearing 70 who have been with their company for 20-plus years. In some cases, the organization benefits greatly from their “crystallized knowledge.” In other cases, the organization suffers because they are no longer able or willing to think as fast on their feet (fluid intelligence) and may lack the willingness to adapt to new workplace conditions.
When you’ve been with a company for so long, it can be akin to university tenure. The thought of terminating such an employee is unthinkable for many organizations. Those longstanding employees are taken for granted as institutions. The employees know they have this standing, and may let their work slide, knowing it is unlikely they will be let go.
For that reason, simply assigning an employee to closely track their productivity, and then frequently (but respectfully) ask them when each assignment will be completed, can be an effective way of nudging the employee to move on.
Enforce Back-to-Office Mandates Evenly
Just as longstanding employees may feel they can get away with not doing all their work, many may feel they do not have to comply with new workplace initiatives.
For example, I noticed that employees nearing, or past, the traditional retirement age of 65 may feel they do not have to adhere to back-to-office policies. Commuting an hour or more to the office is usually not pleasant, and it tends to become more arduous the older you get. And even if the employee still has the physical stamina to do a long commute three to five days per week, they may no longer have the psychological willingness to do so. After decades of hard work, and a taste of a more flexible work life during the pandemic, who wants to live that way if you no longer have to?
Enforcing back-to-office initiatives equally is yet another way to encourage employees no longer fully committed to their work to move on to another phase of their lives. It also ensures an equitable office in which the back-to-office mandate is evenly applied, rather than something that only lower-level employees are expected to comply with.
Can you think of any other fair and legal ways to encourage an older employee, who is not ready to retire (but needs to) to take the plunge?
