Termination Letters

Sample Terminations Letters

Send a termination letter when you are communicating information about a termination, such as the ending of an agreement or situation. You will sometimes write a letter like this on behalf of someone else, such as your child, your elderly parent, or someone who has placed you in charge of his or her affairs. Sometimes, termination letters are professional in tone and style, but they can also be more informal and conversational, depending on who is receiving the letter. The style and wording you use in a letter depend on the specific circumstances.

It is generally best to keep letters as short and concise as possible while still communicating the necessary information. Feel free to customize and modify any of these letters according to your individual needs.

NOTE: In all letters, brackets indicate information that you should fill in. Remove the brackets when you have modified the text to your liking.

Write this type of letter when you are communicating information about a job termination, such as when you are notifying an employee that his job position has been terminated. You will likely need to modify this letter sample at least somewhat so that it most closely matches what you want to communicate. Include in your letter any pertinent details.

[Your letterhead, if desired; if not, your return address]

[Date of letter-month, day, and year]

[Recipient's first and last names]
[Company name]
[Street or P.O. box address]
[City, State ZIP code]

Dear [recipient's name]:

We are writing to you today to notify you that due to serious budget constraints, your job with our company has been terminated. We very much regret that this has occurred. We had gone to drastic measures to tighten our budget in the past year, hoping that job terminations would not be necessary. Unfortunately, however, they are.

Your last day of employment will be three weeks from today. In the meantime, please work with your supervisor to generate a plan for the next three weeks. Also, please contact Human Resources to receive details on completing the termination process. We thank you for your valuable service to our company over the past four years and wish you the very best for your future.