Friday, March 28, 2008

Firing can be a good thing!

Have you ever noticed that there are always a few dreadful workers that never get fired or laid off? Usually, their manager will get them “a better opportunity” in another department and from there, they get shuffled from manager to manager until someone has the guts to stop and say, “Whoa. NO more” and makes the difficult but real decision of terminating that employee.

Sometimes firing someone is clear cut.
I had to council a colleague today who owns a search firm to fire a person who had worked for her for ten years. This person had broken the terms of an employment agreement which directly involved the erosion of trust. Well, trust is a fragile thing in the best of circumstances, but when you have direct evidence that it has been lost in a business that is based on confidentiality such as ours, there is no time to waste.
The employee had to go. This situation is easier than the employee who just doesn’t really fit or never

Nobody enjoys firing people. Well, ok, maybe a few do, but we won’t talk about them. But as unpleasant a task termination can be, it is a necessary one. One of the few pieces of advice my father gave me that at a young age I took to heart was this: “The first time you think of firing someone is the time to do it.” Now that may seem a little cruel, but if you actually think back through the employees you have had to fire, you will usually remember you waited way too long to do it. And waiting to fire somebody does not do any favors to your other employees who are thinking “why the heck is that person still here” and “if they can do so little, so can I” -- Nor does it benefit your customers or your own ability to sleep at night.

I’m not suggesting you take an axe and wildly chop through your organizations, but the first step in “top-grading” any organization means admitting when you have someone who is not meeting expectations nor can they meet them with a little training. In fairness to that person, there is probably somewhere else that they can be –and will be—successful but it requires you to make that tough decision for them.

Done correctly, firing someone can be a good thing for everyone involved.

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