11 Oct 2018 Have You Had To Fire Someone?

Have You Had To Fire Someone?

I had a couple of jobs that required me to terminate people.  It is the hardest thing to do in business.  You are telling someone they don’t meet the company’s standards and they have to go look for new employment.  Sometimes these people had been with the company for years.

I once had a boss who always wanted to be the nice guy and did not want to do the firing.  He made a “manager” and then proceeded to have me get rid of a couple of people. I always had him in the room with me, he just wanted me to bring the bad news.  The first time I did it, the person was not a productive member.  He was ok as a person but did not really do anything of value.  I need to make it clear that I would not want to work for anyone who got any satisfaction at all in firing people.  It sucks.  You hate doing it though the other person feels worse.   

The next person I had to terminate was senior to me in age and had spent many years at the company.  He could not understand or accept that his work was not good.  I know he did not like me at all for doing it.  I could see it in his eyes and body language.  I was only his manager for a couple of months. This was another one of those directed terminations because his long-time manger couldn’t bring himself to do the firing.

I was the program manager at another company.  I had to let several people go for a variety of reasons.  The toughest one was a guy who broke down and sobbed when told.  Again, I had a person from HR or another manager with me.  I did all I could to explain that it was a business decision and not a personal failing, but, it is hard not to take it that way.  

Part of being a leader in a company is making the tough calls when an employee has to be terminated.  Dragging it out helps no one.  You give them an opportunity to succeed, but, if they do not, cut ties and move on.   Do it professionally and with compassion and never, ever take any satisfaction from it.