When counseling employers about the risks of terminating an employee, the adage “use it or lose it” often comes to mind. That is, if an employee’s behavior warrants termination, but the employer chooses to ignore it or even to give the employee a lesser discipline, the concern arises that it may be difficult to include the behavior as justification for a future termination decision.
The employee will argue: “If my behavior was so bad, why was I not terminated for it at the time?” while the employer runs the risk of having to justify leniency toward the employee.
