When you were in School, did you always wish you didn't have to be there? But if you had actually gotten suspended from school, it would have been humiliating to endure.

Well why not try that in the office too? If you have an employee who is really failing at this job, tell him to go home and take the day off. He's not allowed to read/answer emails or to make phone calls or do any research for you.

It's the pain of social exclusion that you're relying on. Who knows.. It might work on some people .

UPDATE 17 November 2014

I actually did this a while back! I had a employee who violated the dress code. She had come to work essentially in her pyjamas! We couldn't accept this as clients regularly walk through the office for meetings and it wasn't the professional image we wanted to have. That wasn't the worst part....this was the second day in a row she had done it, after her manager had told her the day before not to do it again! So I asked her to come over, told her it was unacceptable no matter her reasons, and told her to immediately go home and change. I then sent her an official email stating what I had done and why, and my disappointment.

It would have been included in her performance evaluation except she resigned later that month because she didn't get an annual increment for the second year running. So in all, not a huge loss.