Firing a VA is rarely straightforward. It’s not just about typing a quick email, hitting send, and moving on. For many, it’s knowing when the right time has come that’s the hardest part. Recognizing when to replace a virtual assistant doesn’t come naturally to everyone, and often, emotions get in the way.
You may feel attached to your VA if you like certain aspects of them. Also, letting go means facing the discomfort of starting over—training someone new, sharing sensitive information again, and adjusting to their learning curve. It’s tempting to hold on, even if performance has slipped, simply because the thought of change feels heavier than the inconvenience of staying put.
But the truth is, keeping a VA who isn’t meeting expectations costs far more in the long run. That’s why it’s essential to spot the signs early—so you can make the right decision for your peace of mind.
Warning Signs That It Might Be Time To Let Go Of A VA
When you see any of the following signs, you may want to consider parting ways with your virtual assistant.
Missed Deadlines And Poor Work Quality
Nothing disrupts the flow of remote work like constantly missing deadlines or work that is consistently poor.
You’ve clearly set the expectation—“I need the weekly report delivered every Friday by 2 pm.” Yet, instead of arriving on time, it often arrives late in the evening or the next day. Over a month, only one Friday goes smoothly. And even after mentioning why the deadlines are important, the issue persists.
Two things will happen. One, it’ll shake your trust in the process. You don’t know if you can rely on them to actually meet the deadline going forward, especially if their excuses are dissatisfactory. Two, you will spend time following up on task progress to ensure that the work is completed as soon as possible. This extra work is why you hired a VA in the first place.
Perhaps your VA meets the deadlines, but what if, upon completion of the job, the quality is poor? You open the report to find issues like inaccurate data, missed sections, disorganized structure, and formatting errors—every single time.
While this hurts your business by costing you time, it also shows you that you have a VA that is either not committed to their job or is simply just bad at it. If these issues become repetitive despite feedback, it’s one of the clearest signs you need to fire your VA.
Communication Breakdowns
When you’re not sharing an office with your VA, only one thing can save your relationship—communication.
As the backbone of remote work, proper communication smoothens out every process. It keeps you informed of progress, lets you know when things are difficult so you can step in and provide support, helps team members understand each other better, strengthens relationships, and more.
Here are some potential communication issues you may experience with VAs:
Poor Responsiveness
“Hi, when can I expect to receive the final article for publication?” Four hours later, no response. Now, you’re wondering if the tasks are even being handled at all. It starts to affect how well you trust them, and when it’s consistent, it’s frustrating.
Poor responsiveness can also show in how they report to you. For example, at Klarecon, we use an End-of-Day (EOD) report system, where our associates record completed tasks at the end of the day. If one associate constantly fails to fill the provided sheets, that’s a failure to communicate.
Unclear Or Vague Responses
When something is vague, it lacks clarity and creates uncertainty, leading to confusion.
Here’s an example:
You: “What’s the status of the invoice follow-up?”
VA: “I’m working on it.”
“I’m working on it” gives no details. Is the VA still drafting it or waiting for a response from the client?
Vagueness doesn’t provide enough information to act on, and sometimes may even suggest that nothing is being done. It also wastes time, as you are forced to have a longer conversation to obtain information that could be shared in one reply.
Failure To Communicate Proactively
Proactive communication means taking ownership and communicating accordingly. A proactive VA will ask questions about a task to gain clarity, run to you immediately if things become unclear, update you on the task’s progress, predict potential needs of the project, and suggest improvements to make things better. They won’t wait for you to always be the first to initiate conversations.
You may get questions like these from a proactive VA:
- “Since both deadlines are close, which task or client should be our top priority?”
- “The vendor is yet to reply. Should I remind them tomorrow or start finding someone else to do it?”
- “You have three back-to-back meetings—would you like me to create a 15-minute break in between for you?”
Without proactive communication, issues will be discovered too late, wasting everyone’s time. Regarding communication, here are some tips for improving workplace communication.
Confidentiality Issues
Your business may involve a lot of sensitive information—including passwords, financial records, personal information, and client data—that should never fall into the wrong hands. That’s why your VA must be someone who prioritizes confidentiality. A leak of this information could damage your reputation or cause security risks and bring legal consequences.
If your VA doesn’t handle this info with the utmost confidentiality or starts to share sensitive information without your permission, it’s not a good sign. If they start logging into your systems from unexpected locations or countless devices that they don’t own, they are putting your sensitive assets at risk and should be stopped.
There are a lot of specific signs to watch out for, but I’ll give you a few here:
- They repeatedly request the same access details.
- They use your resources (tools, contacts, or subscriptions) for unrelated purposes.
- They are hesitant to follow standard protocols, like two-factor authentication.
- They are reluctant to give you visibility into their work.
- You notice they are outsourcing your work to a ghost service provider and taking credit for it.
Cost vs. Value Misalignment
Here’s a scenario: you hire a VA for support and pay $1,000 monthly. Your plan is to focus on higher-value work while they handle little tasks like client reporting. Parting with this amount, you expect to have more time to yourself so you can avoid stress and burnout, but the reverse becomes the case as you have to keep correcting their work or even fixing it yourself.
Every second spent fixing their work is lost time that could have been spent on building a strategy or pitching to make sales. The mental stress of double-checking their work and micromanaging them is also another thing to consider. All these shouldn’t be a problem if your VA knows their job. It may look like it’s just money you’re losing, but you’re also losing time and other resources you can’t quantify.
Unreliability In Availability
The smoothness of your workflow depends on the availability of your virtual assistant. It’s not right for your VA to change their availability without proper notice or fail to show up at agreed-upon times consistently. Say you schedule them for morning support—8 am to 4 pm—but instead they log in mid-day or fail to show up at all.
While good VAs communicate their working hours, breaks, and days off promptly and clearly, a bad one misses important check-ins and meetings and doesn’t have a good reason for doing so. They may even come up with a last-minute emergency and no backup plans, leaving you scrambling for solutions.
This behavior makes you work around their absence instead of enjoying a steady rhythm. And when urgency strikes, you can’t depend on them, which defeats the purpose of hiring them in the first place.
Attitude That Disrupts Team Flow
A virtual assistant is there to assist you, not become your boss, so if they can’t take feedback, maybe by constantly pushing back or dismissing your suggestions, it leads to a tense work environment. Considering that VAs are often part of a larger team, any poor attitude they bring can affect the motivation and output of other team members.
Some behaviors a VA may exhibit that affect how your team flows are listed below:
- Constant negativity
- Resistance to feedback and unwillingness to learn or adapt
- Defensiveness or dismissiveness when mistakes are pointed out
- Unprofessional tone in emails or calls
- Ignoring team processes
- Working in isolation instead of collaborating
- Always blaming others for errors or missed deadlines
- Showing entitlement
- Acting as if tasks or teammates are “beneath them”
Questions To Ask Before Making The Decision
Just because a VA doesn’t impress you at the moment doesn’t mean you should kick them out immediately. These few questions will help you see if there is something you can do about it.
Q: Is it a training issue or a performance issue?
It could just be that your VA has not been given enough directions on how to perform to your expectations. Perhaps you need to provide them with some tools or demonstrate the specific way you want things done. In this case, you may want to delay letting them go and instead focus on training. You should consider the door only if you have provided them with all they need, but they still underperform.
Q: Have expectations and SOPs been made clear?
Also, ask yourself if the VA even knows what exactly they are supposed to achieve at the end of each day, week, or month. Because, if they don’t, then how can they meet up with it? Also, it may not be their fault if they have no standard step-by-step procedures outlined by you, but rather are figuring everything out for themselves. The responsibility only shifts to them if you have played your part by communicating procedures and processes with them. Here are some SOPs you need to create for your VAs.
Q: Is there a genuine reason behind their sudden decline in performance?
Sometimes, burnout or an illness may affect a VA’s performance. When tasks are particularly demanding, it’s human nature to become exhausted, and this will be reflected in one’s output. Nothing is wrong. Just give them a little break or some time to get back into shape again. If it’s taken a long time, maybe weeks, and performance is still not optimal, it’s not on you.
Q: Have they been given enough chances?
Everyone deserves a fair chance to improve. A virtual assistant can start on the wrong foot and improve to become the star of your operations. Be patient, provide them with constructive feedback, and observe their progress. If they start to show improvement over time, that’s a good sign. No jobs lost. However, if you continue to face the same issues, you may consider letting them go, knowing you did your best.
How To Professionally Let Go Of A VA
When you finally decide to let go of your VA, you have to keep it professional. Here, I’ll provide a step-by-step approach to firing a virtual assistant professionally.
Document The Issues
Make a note of all the reasons for your decisions. Include 3-5 specific examples with dates and the impact they had. A format you can borrow is this:
“Communication Breakdown — August 14, 2025
Task: Follow-up emails to webinar attendees.
Issue: No updates for 48 hours despite multiple mentions on ClickUp.
Impact: Follow-ups went out late, reducing conversion potential.”
This makes it simple to communicate your decision, instead of sounding accusatory by just saying, “your behavior made us lose some clients some weeks ago.”
Check Contract & Platform Terms
The contract that binds your agreement or the terms of the platform you hired them from sets the rules for how separation happens. This is where you confirm details on final pay, notice period, termination, and intellectual property.
For example, with some contracts, you can terminate employment immediately; however, some may require a notice period.
Hold The Conversation (Video If Possible)
Video calls are the closest you get to face-to-face conversations in the remote world. Use it, so the VA can catch your tone and read your body language. Additionally, messages passed when you can see each other are often clearer and less prone to misinterpretation, and some VAs may even consider the channel a symbol of respect for them.
While at it, remember not to debate about your decision to let them go. Only enforce the decision and leave it as it is.
Here’s a simple format to follow for the call: explanation → decision → next steps.
- The explanation should come first, so your decision doesn’t feel abrupt when it is communicated. At this stage, don’t just say the problem, but also mention specific examples.
- As for the decision, keep it clear—no ambiguity. Let them know that this is the end of the contract.
- Then wrap up by sharing the next steps, which may include details like final payments and transition timelines.
Audio calls come in handy if a video call isn’t possible.
Send Written Confirmation Immediately
As soon as you finish your video or voice call, proceed to send a written confirmation. It should include the effective date, the handover checklist, the access timeline, and the payment details. While the video or audio call serves as an opportunity to communicate clearly and respectfully, this confirmation becomes documented proof of the decision.
Execute Security Changes (Same Day)
Before you let your VA go, you must revoke their access to your tools and resources. Change passwords to any account they had direct access to and, if needed, set up email forwarding. This ensures your resources and information are secure and won’t be leaked.
Settle Finances Fairly And Fast
Up next is to pay for everything that you legitimately owe them. Work that was completed but not up to your expectations has to be paid for too. Only make chargebacks and deductions if they reflect what’s in the contract or terms. You don’t want your reputation to suffer over a few tens of dollars.
Notify Stakeholders
Everyone who directly works with the VA because of your business should be aware that you have terminated their services. You don’t have to share the reasons for letting them go, but you must inform them so they don’t reach out to the VA with sensitive information under the assumption that they are still working with you.
Reassigning Tasks: An Alternative To Letting Go
What if your VA, which currently disappoints you, could be useful to you in other ways? If a VA communicates effectively, stays proactive, and is easy to work with, you may want to explore whether they possess other skills that could benefit you.
For example, the VA you hired to write blog posts may not excel at it, but could be much better at research and even surpass your expectations in that area. Your social media manager who fails to convert fans to buyers could just become the best graphic designer you’ve ever worked with.
If you have other vacancies or have noticed other aspects where they shine, you can reassign them. That way, they keep their job doing work they enjoy, you get better results, and the partnership actually works for both sides.
Conclusion
While firing a VA may feel difficult, so is holding on when the relationship is no longer serving its purpose. The longer you delay, the more it costs you—not just in money, but in time, energy, and peace of mind. It helps to recognize the warning signs early, ask yourself the right questions, and give fair opportunities for improvement. If, after all that, the situation doesn’t change, then moving on is the best choice for both sides.
And when that time comes, handle the process with professionalism and empathy. Be clear and be respectful, while also safeguarding your business by managing access and securing data. When done right, ending a VA relationship becomes less about closing a chapter and more about opening space for the right support that will truly help you and your business grow.
