Not until the last several years, while intermittently dealing with an acute lack of available applicants to fill job vacancies, have employers begun to more frequently struggle with the decision of whether to discharge a poor-performing or problem employee or give the employee yet another chance. It’s always a distressing event, but while there was a continuous stream of job-seekers applying — and the knowledge that employees were employed at will — the relevant concerns about terminating an employee did not include serious ramifications on operational capacity.
However, by early 2020, shortly before the coronavirus shattered our world, the unemployment rate had fallen to approximately 4%, its lowest point in almost 50 years. An estimated 7 million jobs remained. Employers in almost every industry were desperately seeking to retain current employees and attract new employees through measures including wage increases. More employees were voluntarily leaving to jump to another job than at any time since 2001. Many new hires never even completed their probationary period before leaving for greener pastures.