Although many people may not believe it, firing certain employees is probably one of the hardest tasks a business owner or CEO has to face in their lifetime, all the more so when that employee works very hard, makes an effort, and still isn’t good enough for the job they do.
How would we handle a worker who has been loyal to the business, punctual, kind and polite to everyone in the company, and whose only “crime” is not being good enough, or lacking the brilliance we were looking for?
Add to that the fact that this person needs the job because they have a spouse, children, a mortgage… and things get complicated.
This is a new question that executives are often asked nowadays when they are interviewed for management positions, and in a way it could reveal “everything” about you: your leadership ability and your mindset when it comes to running a company. But also that other quality that matters so much for leadership: empathy.
It is also a question with enormous traps, because a company really wants someone who is cold-headed about business, and at the same time a good leader needs human warmth. Are employees just figures to the company, or are they also people? That is the real hidden question.
Perhaps the smartest decision of the great business leaders is the one that sounds worst when we put that message out in a small or medium-sized company.
1. Let’s start with the cold answer
Business leaders like Donald Trump and Steve Jobs would tell us that you have to act quickly and without a second thought the very moment you find out that this person is not the right person. A good person, kind, polite, but not good for the company. And that is what counts in business, since we are not running a charity. But above all, fire them politely. In other words: “Out the door, and make it quick.”
It is today’s billionaires and big business leaders who have taught us sayings like: “You’ll be the best if you work with the best. If you hire mediocre people, your company will be mediocre.”
But… are you sure this is the right answer?
2. Now let’s consider the warm answer
A dismissal is something we do solely for the good of the company, and inevitably, even if we feel bad about firing that person, the pain they will feel is not comparable. We are going to inflict significant pain on a man or a woman, their partner and their children. Probably also on their parents, friends and other relatives when they have to tell them about their new situation and how hard it is to find a new job.
And the thing is, we would like to think that this person will quickly be hired by another company, when the truth is that in many cases we could predict that they will take many months or even years to find another job. They might even lose their home.
Many professionals in management and people management will tell us that we did the right thing by firing them, even though these are the same people who years earlier, during their leadership coaching classes, said we had to show empathy towards our workers.
Can we have empathy for a person and fire them simply because they are not as good at their job as others? Could we sleep well at night knowing that we have probably ruined a family’s life to save ourselves a few hundred or a few thousand euros at the end of the year?
No doubt an approach that would give a recruiter something to think about.
See also: Business founders don’t make good CEOs: the Zynga case
(Read: 6 signs that you should fire an employee)
3. Neither warm nor cold: just rational and thoughtful
I suppose that to answer this question correctly without sounding either like a sentimentalist or like an unscrupulous “bastard”, we can draw on reflection, knowledge and the intelligence of leadership.
Let’s look at what kind of worker we are talking about, because in companies we find these kinds of employees:
- Toxic employees: In a previous article we described 7 types of toxic workers we should fire immediately.
- Adders: productive employees who contribute a lot to the company and make everyone else contribute too.
- Subtractors: they are incompetent but well-meaning, and they don’t live up to the productivity required.
The employee we are talking about is not a toxic person as such, because they don’t harm anyone in the company, they are not a gossip or a psychopath, and the way they treat their colleagues is exemplary.
We are clear that they are not an adder, because they are not as productive as others, and in a way they may be dragging down output in their section.
So we are talking about a subtractor.
The problem with subtractors is that if they notice we are starting to treat them badly or pull them up too often, they could slide into the toxic-worker phase. We could also give the impression that we are rewarding mediocrity, even at the risk of spreading it to everyone else.
First step before firing them: try to turn them into an adder.
Sometimes the fact that a worker is not as competitive as they could be may be due, to some extent, to a lack of training on the company’s part. First, we will give them the chance to become an adder by pairing them with a veteran or expert worker who can teach them and help them along. We are going to try to save this worker, or at least make sure that it is not our fault as a company.
Many great adders started out as subtractors (Read: The day I stopped being a terrible salesman).
As a company, we are going to try to keep our decency and try to do a good job in this respect.
If, after a reasonable trial period, we haven’t managed to turn them into an adder, we would have to ask ourselves whether they pose an existential threat to the company or a considerable loss of profitability.
Clearly, if they cost us more than they bring in, we have to let them go immediately. If not, we will have to make a different kind of judgement about whether it is really worth taking a decision that may not be all that important to take.
We must bear in mind another, no less important aspect: some workers may not be as competent as the rest, but their character can bring something positive to their colleagues. In that case, they would be a worker with some flaws but with added value.
Finally, at this point, and given the profile of the worker in our example, the question would be whether they represent an unacceptable loss, or lower but acceptable profitability. Once we answer that question, we either fire them or keep them.
Further reading
- Acting like a psychopath helps you succeed in business and in love
- Job interviews: 15 curious things that can affect whether you get hired
- 5 things your company may tell you that are actually lies
- The hardest decision a manager has to make
Featured image: Luca Bravo lucabravo, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
.jpg){kind=link}