You’re Fired!

By Blake DuBose and Mike DuBose

In Good to Great, Jim Collins determined that great organizations hire self-directed, competent staff who have positive outlooks and are team-focused. If you make greatness your goal, as we did in 2007, staff who don’t fit into your vision will have to leave.

There are ways to avoid hiring the wrong people in the first place. The tougher you screen applicants upfront, the less likely you’ll have to fire problematic employees later. All new hires should go through a provisional period of at least six months so you may assess them and correct any hiring mistakes.

If you are thinking of terminating an employee, you should be able to say honestly (and document thoroughly) that you tried your best to promote his or her success. First, provide all employees with job descriptions that clearly explain expectations, duties, and how performance will be measured. Ongoing feedback is crucial to providing new and existing employees with confidence-boosting compliments, as well as specific examples of areas in which they must improve.

When employees require counseling or discipline, take notes. Work with them to create action plans for improving their problem areas, and have them sign letters specifically detailing any violations if they fail to improve.

Some transgressions simply cannot be excused, including: unethical, illegal, or dishonest acts; discriminatory or harassing behaviors; incompetence or inability to perform job duties; mismatch with work culture; poor-quality work; customer and employee complaints; inability to work with teams; rude, arrogant, and resistant-to-counseling personalities; making similar mistakes repeatedly; not following policies; poor or inappropriate customer service; requiring constant micromanagement; missing deadlines; hostile or threatening behaviors; and using alcohol and illegal drugs during work, to name a few.

Employers in at-will states, like South Carolina, tend to have more rights than others. Still, detailed, comprehensive employment contracts (ours is seven pages) go a long way toward protecting from misbehavior or attacks by former employees. Employee handbooks can also provide evidence in your favor by clearly defining company rules; however, they do not mean you will not face a lawsuit or EEOC complaint (been there, done that)! If one is filed, you will need clear, documented evidence of previous attempts to help the employee improve.

Before firing someone, consider these points:

Ask yourself, “Do I really want to terminate this person?” Seek advice from human resource professionals and other unbiased parties.

Never fire based on emotion: While it may feel good to give them a swift kick, consider cooling off for 2-3 weeks. If you terminate incorrectly, you may spend hundreds of hours defending yourself in court or EEOC hearings, even if HR professionals gave you the green light. (We’ve been there, too!)

Seek alternatives: If you are unsure that the person must be fired, try other avenues first. Consider allowing the employee to work under a different manager, and make sure that the problems are not being caused by a toxic work culture. If the employee is new, has he or she been given enough time and training to learn the job? If not, consider extending the provisional employment period. (However, if they’re not cutting the mustard within six months, we believe it’s time to go, especially because employers have more rights during the provisional period.)

Other options include demoting the person, trying them in other positions or departments, or eliminating their position but offering them contractual work.

Look for hidden causes: If employees who excelled in the past begin exhibiting performance issues, they may be having personal problems and should be gently confronted, given time off, or encouraged to seek professional help. Be careful, however, to keep your distance from their crises, since this area can be legally dangerous, emotionally draining, and distracting. Though you should be understanding of people who are experiencing difficulties, make sure to treat all employees consistently and fairly.

Beware of guilt: There is no foolproof hiring process, and even the best of us make mistakes. When someone must be terminated, both parties share responsibility for having chosen each other. Upon realizing they have made a hiring mistake, some leaders try to situate problematic employees into other jobs, change their responsibilities, or “make them fit” the business to ease their own guilt. However, stalling on necessary firings wastes valuable time and can make leaders drained and distracted.

All good leaders care about their employees, but for the sake of the company, you must judge performance primarily on job descriptions, professional behavior, and value within the company. Firings become more difficult when the people in question are friends or relatives, likeable people, or simply cannot do better, despite how hard they try. However, if leaders allow incompetent or inappropriate staff to stay too long, other employees and customers may become frustrated with their inaction.

Design termination plans carefully: When you fire employees, you change not only their lives, but the organization itself. Christine Davis of the New Hampshire Department of Public Development reports that, even in an at-will employment state, “You have to be concerned about the legal ramifications of firing someone.” As she explains, many people are members of a protected class (due to age, race, gender, disability, etc.), and might sue for discrimination.

Our philosophy is to “hope for the best, plan for the worst.” Think in advance about what will happen if a person leaves. If they have been with the company for a long time, their exit may cause disruptions. Therefore, you should plan accordingly. Who will absorb their responsibilities? Will things be better or worse? How will customers and staff react? When and how will the termination occur? How will you respect the needs of the employee and help him or her transition to other employment? Will you provide severance pay and/or allow unemployment benefits? Have a human resources professional review your plans once they are made.

Fire with dignity: No matter what employees have done, they’re human, so follow the Golden Rule and treat them like you’d like to be treated. Terminated employees can go through feelings of shame, anger, low self-esteem, and rejection; in fact, losing one’s job is ranked almost as traumatic as a death in the family on many stress tests! Your job as a leader is to transition the wrong employees “off the bus” with the least amount of conflict possible. As a litigation lawyer once warned us, “Wounded people with damaged egos do desperate things!” You don’t want to create “assassins” who will tell everyone (including customers and staff) how you mistreated them.

Bottom line: Be careful, deliberate, and sensitive. Then, if you are certain the person needs to go, pull the termination trigger (carefully)!