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rule five:

One of my bosses was fond of the saying, "If a hammer is the only tool in your toolbox, you may start to think a nail is the solution for every problem."

My philosophy about firing people has evolved over the years to the point where I believe it is very, very rarely necessary.

A couple of points need to be made here. I do believe that there are cases where an employee needs to be discharged. The primary reason for firing is to prevent the poisoning of the entire staff by one person’s unending displays of negative attitudes.

I don’t expect a workplace to be constantly filled with joy and light. (Though, maybe that should be our goal.) There is bound to be some amount of grumbling, personality conflicts, and jealousy in any group of people. But the overall mood of the place has to be one of cooperation and camaraderie. When an employee gets a major chip on his or her shoulder, you need to act.

Where do these negative attitudes come from? You name it. Marge thought that she had been unfairly excluded from a supervisory position. Bill was tired of working nights and knew that he was much more capable than his day shift counterpart. Dorothy thought that she was never given adequate training. The list is endless.

Where did Rick’s negative attitude come from? Rick was … well … Rick was just an ass. No, just kidding. That was a little management humor. Rick was actually an extremely dedicated, very hard-working employee. He just annoyed the hell out of everybody.

Trying to turn a problem employee around can be a real challenge. The first thing you need to do is to get very clear in your own head what you need the employee to do. I’m a vocal supporter of things like encouraging two-way communication, and maintaining an "open door" policy, but when an employee crosses a certain line, the door closes and the conversation becomes decidedly one-way.

Rick grumbles a lot. To himself. To co-workers. And he hollers. Occasionally at co-workers, more often over the phone at family members. One busy Thursday morning he launched a horrific verbal assault on Carol for reloading a machine improperly. Carol burst into tears and bolted for the restroom.

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When I talked to Rick, he immediately began offering excuses. I let him talk for a few minutes. But then I got to the point. My point. It only took two or three minutes to say exactly what I needed from him. Hollering at coworkers is not acceptable. Insults and name-calling are not acceptable. I addressed his excuses head on. I told him I didn’t care if Carol had been shown the correct procedure a thousand times. I didn’t care if Carol loaded it wrong on purpose. Rick’s behavior was the issue and that’s where the focus stayed.

At some point, an employee may prove to be unresponsive to discussions, criticism, or sanctions. To avoid serious damage to morale you need to keep moving towards a resolution.

Before I’d seriously entertain the thought of firing someone, I’d sit down with him or her and talk about their job and how they felt about it. Most employees with performance problems or conduct problems are very unhappy with their jobs. Again, defensiveness is likely to be the first response. Expect to hear that the company doesn’t pay them what they’re worth, that co-workers aren’t pulling their weight, that management doesn’t realize how talented they are, and on and on.

Put the ball back in the employee’s court. "Mary, you seem extremely unhappy with your job lately, and I’m not happy with your performance. I think you need to stop and figure out if you should be looking for another job."

Don’t stop there. Remind the person of the skills and talents that he or she possesses. Let him know that you don’t want those abilities to go to waste.

Tell him that your preference is that he find a way to turn around his performance and attitude and stay in his present job. Tell him that your second choice is for him to find a new job where he can be happy. Tell him that you are willing to help him accomplish either goal.

And then, let him know that the status quo is not one of his options.

A useful tool for emphasizing the seriousness of the situation is to give the employee a day or two off, with pay, to figure out if he is prepared to try to make a go of his current job. Why a paid day off for an under-performing employee? A day off without pay is clearly punishment. The day will likely be spent grumbling about how unfair you are.

The paid day off says that this reflection and self-evaluation is something the company needs the employee to do. We are paying them to perform this task. We expect it to be done.

Don’t use this approach lightly. Never, never use this approach in the hopes that the employee will fire himself. It may look like a way to avoid the pain and unpleasantness of terminating someone, but it’s more likely to backfire on you. Attorneys know to never ask a question in open court that they don’t already know the answer to.

As a manager, you can’t give an employee the option to stay or leave if you’ve already decided that he must leave.

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I see a firing as a failure on my part. Did I hire the wrong person? Was the training we provided inadequate? Were her skills and temperament better suited for a different position? Did I wait too long to intervene?

Don’t beat yourself up over it. But do take it seriously. Talk with your boss about it. Look for other tools that might turn the situation around. Is there another area in your organization that could make use of this person’s talents? Someone saw enough positive traits to hire him.

Firing someone is about the most damaging thing you can do to another person legally. (And of course, it’s not always legal, but that’s a different book.) Being labeled a failure at his job can seriously damage a person’s self-image. Please treat firing like the powerful, destructive weapon that it is.

© Copyright 1999, 2000 by Wayne Bonekemper

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