On Firing an Employee

Published 5 years ago in leadership + management, small business

Last Monday, I fired an employee for the first time in my life.

It was the worst morning of my life, and the weekend before that Monday was horrible as well.

Firing an employee for whatever reason is probably the hardest thing a person can have to do, because when you’re in charge of hiring or firing someone, to some extent you can’t help but feel responsible for that person’s life and well-being.

One of my ‘mentors’ at the office told me “That’s the one thing you never want to be good at.” I agree completely. I’d rather be very good at hiring the right person, coaching them towards success, and promoting them into a new job. I’d rather be good at teaching and training than firing. I suppose that for some reason I feel like firing an employee shows that I am responsible for that person not succeeding.

Anyways, I had an employee that was performing marginally most of the time, and below my (and the company’s) expectations consistently. I tried coaching, teaching, training, warning, and every other technique I could. I gave that person 75 days formal notice that they were on probation, and still didn’t see results. I made the decision to let this person go on a Friday, and set the time/date for the following Monday.

I sweated the event the entire weekend, getting only 3 or 4 hours of sleep on Sunday night. On Monday morning, I had a quick dismissal interview/meeting, and the deed was done.

I’m now looking for a good replacement, but I surely hated myself on Monday morning. I’ve learned a few things about this employee since then that don’t make me feel so bad, but Monday morning was hell, and the rest of the week was full of playing sales person + sales manager… that being said, I actually enjoyed working 12+ hour days this week. It was refreshing. And the support team I’ve got was quite supportive.

If you’re ever in the position to fire someone, I’d recommend some of these links as preparation for the event:

How to Become a Great Boss, as I have done before, as the book will definitely help you learn more about how to be a great boss, and it touches on the subject of “Groom them or Broom them” which basically means that you should make the decision to fire someone quickly if you have to, or commit to training them for bigger and better things… I took too long to make this decision this time I think.

12 Responses to “On Firing an Employee”

Feed for this Entry

1 Monkeyspit Jul 20th, 2003 at 9:58 am

I was in a similar position myself. I tried workinging together, explaining goals, warning, and even the probation period. When none of this worked out the realtionship had to come to an end. Then, the employee was shocked and surprised when the time came to part ways! It was a difficult period in my career and made even more so when I discovered that the employee hasn’t yet found a job in over a year. The process was long, but I think it has to be for documentation purposes and due to the weight of such a decision on a person’s life.
2 Jeff Harrell Jul 21st, 2003 at 11:05 am

Gosh, I hate to sound morbid, but… I need a job. Where do I send my resum�?

I’ve heard that people who live in New York sometimes look for a new apartment by reading the obituaries. This feels uncomfortably like that.
3 Brian Jul 21st, 2003 at 8:15 pm

I hope you gave the guy a decent severance package. Average time between jobs for white collar workers right now is 22 weeks. And Texas unemployment insurance is a joke.
4 Randy Jul 23rd, 2003 at 8:03 pm

Take solace that this isn’t you: During a round of layoffs, my current company let an employee that works for me go - without notifying me, of course - that had been there for over 7 years. They emailed him the fact that he’d been laid off, because my boss “didn’t have his home phone number”. What’s worse that this is that there’s only about 30 people in the entire company…

And people tell me Scott Adams doesn’t follow me around with a notebook… hah!
5 Bryan Strawser Jul 23rd, 2003 at 8:28 pm

Thanks for sharing your experience. It’s certainly never an easy thing to do — but generally turns out to be a better things for your team (their now-former co-workers). Having the opening sucks for a bit though.

Thanks again,

Bryan
6 RufusJordan Oct 11th, 2003 at 9:42 am

I was fired from my job about a week ago i asked my employer why and he would not tell me is that legel the rumor has it that it was for sexual harasment but no investigation was conduted is ther anything i can do