July 19, 2001
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Pink Slip Time
I need advice, fellow Xangans. I have to fire someone. I have no experience firing anybody unless they’ve only worked for me for a day or two, and were obviously grossly incompetent. This situation is a little trickier, however. Have you ever fired anyone? What do you say? How do you do it? Is there a firing protocol in business? Here’s the situation:
- She’s worked for me for 3 years.
- Her work quality is good, but her work ethic is not.
- She has no sense of urgency, and we work in a deadline-based business. She wants to wait until the deadline is almost up, then do the work, saying "Well, we HAVE until THIS time."
- She can see no further than the end of her nose. She’s interested in what will benefit her, rather than how we can make clients happier.
- She brings her child to work every day during the summer (ugg), and uses company computers repeatedly for personal business, even after being asked not to. Her daughter (age 13) uses one of the computers to surf the Internet when she’s here.
- Here’s the topper, for me: She’s been off for two weeks, and my business has made as much money without her here as it did when she was working. She talks a LOT. I’ve been doing her work, and spending the same amount of hours at the office as before, but now I’m making the money she was making, see? I’m just not as distracted as I was when she was here.
So, I’ve been needing to take my business to "the next step" anyway, and after a meeting with some trusted friends and associates, it’s been decided that I need to let her go. But the problem is that she’s a very NICE person.
Minor details: She’s a contracted worker. I don’t have to worry about the legalities of firing an "employee" for cause. I’m not paying her hourly, but rather per the amount of output she makes.
Any words of wisdom on how to do this gracefully, from either the employer’s or employee’s point of view?
- She’s worked for me for 3 years.
Comments (13)
ok thats easy, hun.
first of all before you fire her do you want to see if you can talk about her 'problem areas' first?
if not then just say listen, I need to let you go. Youre a great person with good job skills, but right now we arent in need of the extra help. If an oppurtunity arises in the future for you here i'll call you. Of course please include me on your refrences as I'd love to give you a great reccomendation.
: )
wasnt that easy
dont be scared.....employees can sense fear. : )
from the Hagekura,
matters of great concern should be treated lightly.
matters of small concern should be treated seriously.
: )
by the way...i'm sending you a bill for this consultation.
oh by the way in the future when you find an employee doing something..have a little chat with them and point it out.
but dont point out too much at once otherwise it will be overload.
also talk to them about their strengths so it doesnt feel like an attack.
Maybe you could just secretly move to a new office.
LOL to these responses. I have no clue. Sorry.
I've been in management for a number of years. The economy is falling. This is an excellent time to state you are cutting back on overhead, as such. Tell her she has been very acceptable, (nice way of putting it, without appearing to like her work, which you really didn't). I would not state anything about a recommendation, let's face facts, she was not deserving. Nice, does not benefit your company. Abilities do that. She is a slacker, obviously. Your business is not a day care center either. She didn't take her workload serious, or deadlines to complete. In short, she sucked. You really don't owe her anything, she was not dedicated to your business. She contracted anyway. You can avoid all of the above, and just give her a simple termination notice. It would be much different if she was a good worker, etc. Whew.....time for a Bud.
On the flipside of this all I would say that you have made a major error. You are the boss, its all well and good too talk about how she slacks off but what about your responsability? When an employee does something that is not "beneficial" to the company they need to be told immediately otherwise they will continue to do it and feel more freedom to try and get away with more. You have no chance of resolving the issue now. You issue a huge number of points that this person has been getting away with for a while they may change but the atmosphere at work will be unbareable as she sulks and does all she can to be disruptive without being unproductive. The kind of person who is willing to treat an employer like that is one who is likely to be difficult after this length of freedom. And that is the best case scenario. All is not lost, you are the boss. and I agree with solitaire, you are cutting back on overhead but to give this person a recommendation would mean you are possibly unloading this person onto another unsuspecting company, would you like someone to do it to you? Cut your losses, get rid of her with as much tact as possible, don't mention any of her bad points cause its likely to blow up into a row. And once shes gone learn from your mistakes, nobody has to be an asshole boss to get things accomplished. A quick word at the right time can save you a lot of money and stress.
Wow, late to the party again. Well, I don't endorse the total politeness bit. Business is business and personal is personal, but it's just a nice human thing to do to inform someone of their shortcomings in a constructive way, so that at least they learn something from the experience. At least I would want to, if I were getting axed.
I have been on both sides before. When I was on the "employee" side, I was going through severe personal problems and it was all I could do to keep my head above water and even COME to work sometimes, let alone regularly produce.
However, if you said she's been doing this for three years (same work ethic the whole time?), then maybe this should be brought up, as "room for improvement". Personally, I think the person should know exactly WHY.
As a "manager", it was always extreeeemely hard to do this sort of thing. I always felt like that age-old saying "It hurts me worse than it hurts you", because I would agonize over it. We're talking about someone's livelihood here.
I am a contractor, though, and I know most contractors understand they are expendable. That goes with the territory.
So, from all sides, that is my final ANSWER!!!
The Duchess
I would say try to talk to her first, try to see if she will change. That's always worked for me when I slacked!
Yikes. Icky question. I work for the government, which means that after a certain amount of conditional employment has passed, an employee could set a cubicle on fire, and only be "counseled." I have to agree that it's easy to counsel early & let go early (or build a better worker) than to fire later.
You have been counseling her, on things like the Internet use (heck, in the government, that's one surefire way you can get axed). If she's not responsive to your (her boss') requirements, then she's not an asset to your growing business. I say that she deserves your honesty as to why you're letting her go - it might make her (I know, I'm being naive) a better employee next time.
Good luck, sadzi. It's a tough call & always a tough conversation.
Keep to the facts...take all possible emotion out of it. If you have clearly stated your expectations and she has not met them she should not be suprised when she is terminated.
I can't really add anything that hasn't already been said, I just hope you don't waffle about it and back down if she starts to bawl.
I wish I could help, but I have never had to deal with this myself. It does sound like you're better off without her though. All I can suggest is you make it as graceful as possible and offer good references for her.