In most states it's quite difficult to prove that you fired for cause -- performance is quite subjective. Typically the employee needs to do something dramatic & harmful for you to deny unemployment.
It's pretty easy to document poor performance. Any McJob employer can swing it and their margins are almost certainly lower than anything involving knowledge workers.
I understand that no-one likes to do the business-overhead side of things in small businesses. But either the costs of paying (undue) unemployment aren't that big of a problem, or the employer has no-one to blame but themselves for not documenting cause.
There's a big difference between McJob and software development. If someone doesn't handle N customers, fails to show up on time, or has several documented customer relationship issues: it is clear cut. You have to give the employee several opportunities, etc.
If you have an equivalent recipe for a marginally performing software developer that doesn't cost more to implement than just paying the unemployment : I'd love to hear it.
Also consider team morale. Waiting for several phases of failure to "document" your case is a great way to lose your top performers and lose a customer. I think it's less expensive just to fire -- ideally /w severance in exchange for unemployment, if your state permits it.
> "There's a big difference between McJob and software development."
Yes and no. The basics are the same: you need to document responsibilities, goals and performance. Document performance that doesn't meet the goals. Document some sort of plan by which you try to help the underperforming employee meet their goals and then document their continuing performance.
Is it potentially cheaper to just pay a modest severance or unemployment insurance? Quite possibly.
But documenting performance is not voodoo and the fact that just paying a modest severance or unemployment is cheaper than documenting performance rather undercuts the assertion that unemployment costs are onerous.
Not everyone is a self-starter or "rockstar". Failing to document clear responsibilities and goals and then measure performance against those goals shortchanges you and them.
This may be an unpopular sentiment around HN circles, but just expecting every employee to "get it" and not having a consistent process to deal with underperformance (which can have many different and often addressable causes) is a crappy way to treat employees in my view.
