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March 16, 2006

Are You on the Firing Line?

When they promoted you to your first supervisory position they probably didn't tell you you'd have to fire someone someday! But I bet you know the feeling by now. The clammy palms, the twisted knot in the pit of your stomach. The sense of dread. And I'm not just talking about the employee you are about to terminate; I'm talking about you the night before that dreaded "discussion."

So how do you do it? How do you handle it when it comes time to fire one of your employees? It's a question that comes up frequently following my keynote speeches. The topic is a popular component of the management development and supervisory skills training that KEYGroup   provides to our clients. What are the secrets to conducting a clean termination that results in the least amount of inflicted pain? The answers to that question have huge implications for you and for your company … as well as for the employee being separated from a job that he or she may well love.

Do You Have to Fire That Person Right Away?

Yes. But, I know what you are secretly hoping. Maybe if you just wait a bit longer the employee will get back on track. Or maybe the employee will decide to quit on his or her own. Or maybe if you make things unpleasant enough you can force this person out the door.

Get real! You know you have to fire that "under-performing" employee and you have to do it right away. Here's why …

Low performers are a drain on your other, higher-performing personnel. They bring down the entire workgroup and cause more headaches among your staff than they are worth. Other employees typically resent someone who "slacks off." After all, the slacker creates more work for the rest of the team, who have to pick up the "slack."

Employees tend to be loyal to co-workers, so you may not always hear complaints about the poor-performer from other employees. But you have to believe that they will be secretly relieved when the "bad apple" is removed from the barrel!

But there's also a risk involved. If you don't conduct the firing the right way you end up creating more problems. Employees invariably share a sense of "fair play" and won't be relieved to see a poor performer removed if the exit was done in a sloppy, unfeeling or unfair manner. Remember, having to fire someone brings up a lot of strong feelings, and not just in you and the employee being terminated. Your remaining staff has feelings about the work environment, too, and firing someone will invariably bring those feelings to the surface.

Make No Mistake … Getting Fired Hurts

If you've never been fired you may not realize the depth of pain and self-doubt that termination   can bring about. According to the "The New Harvard Guide to Women's Health" being fired ranks high on the list of stressful life events, right at number four.

Think about it. Losing your job not only means the loss of income and benefits (which for a "payday to payday" employee can spell disaster), it also frequently means the loss of self-esteem. Most people tend to invest a lot of their ego in what they do for a living and being without a job means they may also be left without an "identity." I've actually heard of people who, having lost their jobs, still continued to get dressed in the morning and "leave for work" every morning just so their neighbors (and sometimes their spouses) wouldn't know they had been let go.

For many of these employees there's also an element of surprise - even shock - surrounding the termination, even if you've coached and progressively disciplined them. Don't ever kid yourself into thinking that the employee you are about to fire knows the "axe" is coming. Most don't suspect a thing, or at best expect to get a slap on the wrist rather than a "shove" out the door. I personally know of one top executive who had to be taken out of the building on a stretcher, with oxygen, after collapsing from the shock of getting fired!

Sadly, many employees are still surprised to hear those dreaded words. Part of the problem stems from the way managers often mishandle firing someone. A recent "Business Week" article highlighted this sad fact when they listed the top four reasons managers gave for why employees were fired. Where do you suppose "poor job performance" fell on that list? Number one? Hardly. Job performance didn't even make the top four!

The top four reasons managers gave for firing someone were: "generally poor attitude," "excessive clock watching," Looking for another job," and "gossiping about bosses and co-workers." Poor performance, which is much easier to document than "poor attitude usually results in a "clean" termination with fewer complications.    

But to be fair, most fired employees don't rush out and hire a lawyer, and very few ever get violent (thank goodness.) But it's sometimes a wonder to me why courtrooms and emergency rooms aren't overrun with disgruntled employees, considering how badly many supervisors handle terminations.

WHY Were They Fired???

I think we've all heard outrageous stories about being fired. Many times the stories surround an employee who deserved the termination. But what about those who were fired for puzzling, ridiculous and quite often illegal reasons.  

"SimplyHired.com is a Silicon Valley job search site that has been running a contest for several years to collect the funniest and most unusual stories from people who've been fired. Consider, for instance, the plight of …

• The computer engineer who was fired after eating two slices of pepperoni pizza left over following a company meeting.
  
• A worker who was terminated because he misunderstood a manager's instructions to send some sensitive data to "microfilm" but emailed it instead to someone named "Michael Finn."
  
• The sales rep who returned to the office following a weeklong sales call. When he commented to his supervisor that there seemed to be fewer people in the building he was told, "We would have laid off more, but you weren't here."
  
• The employee who bumped into her manager at an adult video store and was fired the next day because her manager said she didn't want "people like that" working in her office.
  
• The employee who was called into her boss's office and told that she was being let go because her father called and said he didn't want his daughter working there anymore … despite the fact that the woman's father had died six years prior!
  
• The senior system manager who was eventually fired after suggesting that his boss issue their biggest customer a refund when an accounting error resulted in an overcharge. The firing manager instead insisted on adding an "integration" fee to the customer's invoice.
     
• The computer operator who was rushed to the emergency room from work after suffering from severe chest pains. Following a three-week stint in the hospital he was fired when he returned to work because he had failed to log off his terminal while having the heart attack.
  
• The administrative assistant who was let go after a snowstorm prevented her from bringing donuts to the office, per her usual routine.

I want to heat from you!   Do you have an outrageous story that you would like to anonymously share about getting fired?   Well, I want to hear it.   Click www.howtofiresomeone.com and tell me your story. I will try to print it in our next e-zine.

Ok, so this is a bit of a trick question. The easiest way is to NOT fire them. You can avoid firing   low-performing employees by coaching them on how to improve their job performance. I know it may not be an easy solution and it may not be a magical solution.  

Sometimes you still have to end up letting someone go, but the good news is that by then you have created a documented history that will make termination easier. The bonus is that it will also be less of a surprise for the terminated employee (who is NOT being fired for something as ambiguous as "attitude").

At KEYGroup we do quite a bit of training around these concepts. We've even developed an easy-to-follow framework for handling a coaching discussion.   We call this the KEYModel for Giving Corrective Feedback:

KEYModel: Giving Corrective Feedback

Use these steps when helping associates improve their behavior:

1. State the specific behavior.
2. Explain why the behavior is causing a problem.
3. Give the person being confronted the chance to respond.
4. Mutually establish the desired goal(s).
5. Decide on specific actions to be taken to avoid the problem in the future.

We also have other models for coaching employee behaviors, especially for giving positive feedback. For more information on employee coaching visit www.keygroupconsulting.com.

What Do Employee Firings Say About Your Culture?

Whenever I consult with a new client organization I always like to look at employee turnover statistics. The numbers of employees leaving your company - both voluntarily and in voluntarily --\can say lot about your culture. Unhappy, dissatisfied employees often leave voluntarily for "greener pastures." But sometimes other dissatisfied employees stay put, yet they suffer from dwindling performance as they become more and more de-motivated.

If your organization is conducting a lot of firings - even with ample documentation and on-the-job coaching -- you may still need to look at the type of work environment you are providing your people. If the environment is energized, empowering and inspirational you won't have to concern yourself as much with counseling, coaching and firing under-performing employees.

Think about it this way. You probably had high hopes when you hired each of your employees. People can end up disappointing you for a variety of reasons, but the least of these should be that he or she just didn't find the work of the environment stimulating enough!

Over the past 25 years, I have worked with hundreds of organizations in a wide variety of industries to help them address issues and problems related to the work environment.   I have found that organizations that tackle vital issues of corporate culture, are the ones that are best positioned to compete successfully in the marketplace - whether for talented employees or for new clients. I call this type of firm a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization, or VEO, because it's an environment in which that all-elusive sense of ownership can flourish.   I believe a VEO has five distinct characteristics:

1. A VEO shares the "big picture" people need to take personal risks and hold themselves accountable.
   
2. A VEO exemplifies the new face of loyalty.
   
3. A VEO supports high productivity while minimizing stress.
   
4. A VEO produces a winning tradition.
   
5. A VEO elevates communication to an art form

My website has a great deal of information about VEOs and how you can begin moving your organization toward the goal of transforming your culture. For more information visit www.keygroupconsulting.com

All contents copyright 2005 by KEYGroup® Contents may not be reproduced without permission.

To learn more about how you can create a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization contact KEYGroup® at 724-942-7900 or visitour websites www.keygroupconsulting.com and www.joannesujansky.com.