I also write a short acknowledgment form that the employee will sign and that confirms what happened. It makes clear that the employee was responsible and that the reason for the firing has been explained.
When I was fired from my first programming job, my boss took this approach. I was inexperienced and frankly quite shocked -- there had been no warnings, and the reason cited was laughable* -- so I ended up signing it. I've come to realize that I despise the practice. It asks a person who is feeling vulnerable to increase their own shame, doing nothing productive for either party. I always thought I was a careful person when it came to contracts and such, but this was a real lesson in keeping one's guard up even when taken by surprise.
* Namely, that I didn't deliver projects in a timely manner. Normally this would have been good cause, but instead of looking to more significant factors (bickering bosses making major changes to requirements on a daily basis, unstable platform for development, etc.) they considered the problem to be fundamentally attributable to my slow typing speed of ~70wpm.
When I was fired from my first programming job, my boss took this approach. I was inexperienced and frankly quite shocked -- there had been no warnings, and the reason cited was laughable* -- so I ended up signing it. I've come to realize that I despise the practice. It asks a person who is feeling vulnerable to increase their own shame, doing nothing productive for either party. I always thought I was a careful person when it came to contracts and such, but this was a real lesson in keeping one's guard up even when taken by surprise.
* Namely, that I didn't deliver projects in a timely manner. Normally this would have been good cause, but instead of looking to more significant factors (bickering bosses making major changes to requirements on a daily basis, unstable platform for development, etc.) they considered the problem to be fundamentally attributable to my slow typing speed of ~70wpm.