Before you end one person's employment, confirm what kind of exit it is, whether the documents support the stated reason, who covers the work, how access will be handled, and what the manager will say, then take all of it to HR and employment counsel before a date is set. Remove names and identifying details first, and follow company policy on sharing personnel information. Paste the stated reason, a summary of the feedback trail or the role elimination rationale, the person's responsibilities, the coverage plan, and the manager's draft talking points into one request. Instruct Pingpong to flag gaps, contradictions, and single points of failure, and to list questions for HR and counsel. Review your written answers in a second round.
HR and employment counsel own the legal assessment, the terms, and whether and how to proceed. Pingpong reviews business readiness. It does not give employment law advice.
This page is for chief executives, executives, and managers preparing for an individual involuntary exit. Executive starting points live under Pingpong for executives.
Know which kind of exit this is
A performance exit rests on clear expectations, written feedback over time, and a chance to improve. A role elimination rests on a business reason that would apply to whoever held the role. Mixing the two, such as calling a performance concern a restructuring, creates contradictions that HR and counsel will need to see early.
For an executive, check whether the board or a committee must approve the exit or be told before it happens.
Work back from the conversation
- Before any date: HR and counsel review the reason, the documents, and anything in the timeline they should know about.
- One week before: a coverage plan names who takes each responsibility, and knowledge transfer starts where it can without signaling the decision.
- Two days before: IT confirms the access plan for systems, accounts, and anything the person administers.
- The day before: the manager rehearses the talking points with HR, keeping them short and consistent with the documented reason.
- The first week after: the manager tells the team what changes for them, and customers or partners hear from the new owner.
A worked example
This example is illustrative and does not describe a customer. At a 200-person software company, the head of engineering wants to let go of a senior engineer who leads the payments integration. The stated reason is performance.
The head of engineering pastes a summary of the past two reviews, notes on a missed migration deadline, the engineer's responsibilities, and draft talking points, with identifying details removed.
A useful pass finds that both reviews from last year were strong, and that no written feedback exists since. The missed deadline was discussed only in conversation. The draft talking points open with "we're restructuring the payments team," which conflicts with the performance reason. The engineer is the only person who understands the payment reconciliation system, holds administrator access to the payment processor, and covers a third of the on-call rotation. No one else has been trained. The timeline also includes a recent leave request, which the review lists as a question for HR and counsel without assessing it.
The head of engineering takes the findings to HR and employment counsel before setting any date, and the decision waits for their advice. Whatever they decide, the continuity risk needs fixing now. A second engineer begins pairing on reconciliation, the team writes a runbook, administrator access to the payment processor gets a second holder, and the on-call rotation widens. The talking points are set aside until HR and counsel confirm the path.
If the decision involves several people, see check the decision is ready before you announce layoffs.
A request you can copy
Below are, with identifying details removed, the stated reason for an individual exit, a summary of the feedback trail or role elimination rationale, the person's responsibilities, our coverage and access plans, and the manager's draft talking points. Flag gaps between the reason and the documents, contradictions in the talking points, and responsibilities no one else can cover. List questions for HR and employment counsel. Do not give legal advice. Stop there so we can answer in writing, then review our answers.
How Pingpong runs the review
The web review app sends your request through several models in order. Each later model receives the original request and every earlier answer, with instructions to assess the work so far. For the steps inside the app, see running your first review.
What a model can't review
A model does not know employment law where you operate, your company's policies, or the full history between the manager and the employee. HR and counsel own those questions, and you own the decision.
When a senior exit goes to the board, see war-game a decision before the board meeting. More guides live under work decisions before you commit.