*2.5. Employment Termination*

The primary outcome event was any termination of employment during the 60-day probationary period, dichotomized as "yes" or "no." Outcome variables were created using information available in the human resources records database. Information was also available regarding the reason for termination, as recorded by the employer. We classified the following reasons as involuntary terminations: termination without pay, violation of workplace violence policy, absenteeism, unsatisfactory performance, and safety violation. We classified the following reasons as voluntary terminations: personal reasons, return to school, relocation, another job, and "3-day no call/no show." The "3-day no call/no show" reason refers to an employer policy stating that an employee will be terminated if he/she is absent for three consecutive work days and does not communicate an explanation for the absence. We considered such a circumstance a voluntary termination, in contrast to absenteeism, which was related to the number of absent days regardless of communication between the employee and the employer (which we considered an involuntary termination). Terminations also occurred for other reasons for which neither involuntary nor voluntary could be assigned, including: promotion from hourly to salaried employment, catastrophic injury outside of work that removed the employee from the workforce, and unspecified circumstances.
