I have a problem employee.  His attitude is the biggest problem.  He is the type of guy that will argue with any one about every situation.  You know the type...the sky is blue today but he is going to argue that it is green.  But to give you all some background...the owner never followed through with any discplinary issues and he has recently backed away to let myself and the manager run the show.  So with that being said, I have no discplinary stuff on this guy besides a very recently signed agreement with a job description and work schedule.  His job description does include a positive attitude.  Yesterday the manager was outside talking to a salesman for about an hour.  When he came back in he was already late for leaving for the day.  My problem employee had stepped outside for a break and when a customer walked in the door, this employee refused to help the customer (even though he was the only one there to help him) and told the manage that he (the manager) took an hour break so it was now time for his break and the manager can stay and help this customer.  Now, I don't want to say that our employees can't have a break but we are an extremelly small company of only 8 employees.  Business is slow so we have been thinking of doing a small layoff.  My question is...can i layoff one person (since we are small and I do have plenty of proof that business is doing poorly), should I go through the discplinary process of talks, writeups, etc or does his repsonse to his manager yesterday warrant an immediate firing?
Posted by amandagood