Hiring and HR conversations

Give an employee a performance warning

Handle an employment decision with direct language, documented facts, and respect for power differences. This page focuses on how to give an employee a performance warning while keeping the message clear, proportionate, and fully refusable.

Write your messageHow it works

Account for the relationship as it is now

Use a tone that fits the present relationship, not the closeness, authority, or access that existed in the past. For a message about how to give an employee a performance warning, use this factual base: state the role, policy, decision, dates, and process that apply without disclosing another employee's information.

Ask without assigning an obligation

Explain what you hope for while making decline, delay, or a different format genuinely acceptable. Explain the available next step, support, review route, or deadline and name the correct contact. Make the immediate next step clear enough that the recipient can answer without reconstructing the entire history.

Keep the ending honest

Do not imply a guaranteed outcome, retaliate, or use informal pressure where a formal process is required. Use HR, a representative, legal advice, or emergency support for discrimination, harassment, threats, or immediate danger. Avoid future promises, guilt, flattery, or nostalgia that imply the recipient owes you access.

Common questions

People also ask

How do I give an employee a performance warning?
State the role, policy, decision, dates, and process that apply without disclosing another employee's information. Explain the available next step, support, review route, or deadline and name the correct contact. Keep the first message focused on one purpose rather than every unresolved part of the relationship.
What should I include when I give an employee a performance warning?
Include verified context, the real impact, the decision or support needed now, and any genuine timing constraint. Do not imply a guaranteed outcome, retaliate, or use informal pressure where a formal process is required.
What if they do not respond after I give an employee a performance warning?
No response may be the clearest boundary available, and it should be treated as a complete outcome. Use HR, a representative, legal advice, or emergency support for discrimination, harassment, threats, or immediate danger.

What Kildr supports now

The full request stays simple. The controls around it are deliberate.

Opening is free

Recipients never pay to open or read a Kildr message. Before opening, they see who is asking when the sender chose to identify themselves and the total amount paid. A sender phone number is shown only when the sender explicitly chooses to share it.

The recipient stays in control

A recipient can decline without opening, block one sender, opt out of Kildr entirely, or report an opened message. A normal sender block can be removed by the recipient later. Declining means that message can never be viewed afterward.

Three optional responses

After opening, the recipient can choose “I need to think”, “Text me”, or “Never contact me again”. The first two can be switched after a 10-minute cooldown. “Never contact me again” is final, and the recipient can permanently block that sender or all Kildr requests.

Themes and read receipts are optional

Senders can choose free themes or buy a premium theme. An active paid theme is added to the visible Amount paid total. A separate read-receipt add-on unlocks Opened and Read status; without it, the sender's lifecycle information stops at Delivered.

Paying creates the request and optional sender features. It never creates an obligation for the recipient to open, respond, unblock, or make contact.

Related situations

All situations
Hiring and HR conversations

Announce a layoff to an employee

Handle an employment decision with direct language, documented facts, and respect for power differences. This page focuses on how to announce a layoff to an employee while keeping the message clear, proportionate, and fully refusable.

Read this situation
Hiring and HR conversations

Negotiate a job offer in writing

Handle an employment decision with direct language, documented facts, and respect for power differences. This page focuses on how to negotiate a job offer in writing while keeping the message clear, proportionate, and fully refusable.

Read this situation
Hiring and HR conversations

Report workplace harassment in writing

Handle an employment decision with direct language, documented facts, and respect for power differences. This page focuses on how to report workplace harassment in writing while keeping the message clear, proportionate, and fully refusable.

Read this situation
Work, career & practical

Contact a recruiter who stopped replying

Recruiter silence may mean a paused role, a changed brief, or an overloaded inbox. Your message should make it easy to provide a status, including an honest no.

Read this situation

Prefer to read around it first? Read the journal or see how Kildr works.