This employee has threatened physical harm, and her sending of a threatening text message should be seen as an accusation of severe misconduct. While summary dismissal is the consequence of claims of egregious misbehavior, it is critical not to make rash conclusions and follow your disciplinary process. Suppose you remove an employee without completing your disciplinary process. In that case, the dismissal may be judged unjust since the employee was not given a chance to react to the claims leveled against her.
Due to the gravity of the alleged wrongdoing, you should consider suspending the employee in these circumstances. It is critical not to leap to suspension as the sole method of removing the employee from the situation – you may accomplish the same impact via other measures – but a threat of violence included in such a frightening communication may necessitate real suspension. To bolster the perception that the behavior may constitute severe misconduct, it would be proper to take some form of disciplinary action.
It is critical to retain the text message as proof. Additionally, you should ensure that your approach is consistent with how the organization has previously handled comparable occurrences.
You must communicate with the employee after your first instruction. Notifying an employee to leave and not return may be seen as an immediate dismissal, so ensure that you undertake a disciplinary process to demonstrate that you did not dismiss the person in that circumstance.