How A Compromise Agreement Can Help When Employment Is Terminated

Right from the start you had a bad feeling about this employee, and now you're wishing you'd trusted your instincts. She just won't ever compromise and is possibly the worst employee you've ever had!

Sadly, she wouldn't, however hard you tried to keep her happy, stay cheerful and maintain your sanity. You felt like you spent a lot of time listening to her and tried really hard to allay her complaints and stop her from being unhappy.

To no avail and when she handed in her notice, relief swept over you. Well, for a while. Then you had the hideous thought that she might take all her complaints to a further stage: to a Court and claim an extortionate compensation sum. She simply wasn't the sort to agree to a sensible compromise.

A fellow employer listens to your worries and advises you to seek out a solicitor who could draw up a compromise agreement. Ridiculous thought! The woman would never agree to swapping a coffee break! Anyway you're fuming and mad that the woman got the better of you; if only you had known for sure what would have made her happy.

Stop. She might well be open to discussion - and especially through a third party such as a lawyer. It's well worth pursuing because she may have longed for the chance to discuss her problems with an independent advisor; she may have felt that, for whatever reason, she couldn't talk to you. She may also dread the thought you could blacklist her and ruin her chances of different employment elsewhere. She might be benefitted by a compromise agreement - it could help her to calm down and find a more appropriate job.

She might feel that by pursuing her complaints through a tribunal is the only route possible to allay her resentments and bad feelings but, like you, feeling stressed out with the thought.

It's so easy to assume - and assume wrongly. Most people will see the logic in a compromise agreement as a legal binding document that helps both parties.

Get an experienced compromise agreement solicitor on your side first, speak to him about your concerns, get an understanding of how simply and easily a compromise agreement can be drawn up and it is likely your former employee will have calmed sufficiently by now to agree to disagree.