You are the human resources supervisor for your firm, which employees ~ 250 employees. It is a manufacturing firm that also has a maintenance department with a staff of 20 mechanics. Marcus is the maintenance department supervisor and has been dealing with a number of performance issues with Jhon, one of his subordinate mechanics.

Marcus has been closely working with you over the past months regarding Jhon's performance issues. Over the past nine months, you have assisted Marcus in creating and issuing disciplinary letters to Jhon regarding his costly mistakes on the job. Both you and Marcus have had to issue progressive disciplinary letters and you're hoping that his blunders will stop and his work performance will improve. Marcus now has his doubts and has recently mentioned that he doesn't think that Jhon has any common sense.

History-wise, nine months ago, Jhon mis-balanced a rotating lathe in the maintenance shop and the resulting excessive vibration caused $9000 worth of damage to the equipment. While no one was hurt, this could have resulted in an injury (but didn't). This was an avoidable and costly mistake, and Jhon was issued discipline for it.

Six months ago, Jhon was progressively disciplined for poorly welding a piece of production equipment. The piece that Jhon welding failed and caused a $12,000 loss, due to damaged equipment and loss of product.

Four months ago, a delivery truck that was backed into the off-loading ramp had its trailer door jammed and wouldn't freely open. Jhon used a fork-lift to force the door open and ultimately damaged the door and the product inside, costly $7000 to the company. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the actions were clearly unsafe. Jhon was disciplined for this incident and was advised, in writing, that the next work-performance issue within the next 12 months, will result in termination.

When you arrived this morning, Marcus was waiting outside your office wanting to talk to you. Marcus told you that Jhon was injured on the job early this morning and was taken to the hospital for his injuries. Jhon was working on a robot box stacking machine and did not lockout and de-energize the machine before he had started working on the device. Marcus brought with him a copy of Jhon's training records and assessments that show that Jhon was well aware of the policies and application of lockout and de-energizing equipment before performing any maintenance work.

Jhon was seriously hurt, but the condition is not life-threating. He will likely be in the hospital for the next 3 weeks, but is expected to make a full recovery and return to work.

Write how you would proceed with this issue. For example, some of the thoughts you may have is whether you should terminate Jhon while he's in the hospital, or wait until he returns to work and then terminate him? Perhaps you believe that the accident was punishment enough to Jhon and forego the termination? If you do decide to go ahead and terminate Jhon now, does it make it more complicated that he's injured and the perception could be the termination was a result of his injury, rather than work performance?