It doesn't happen often, but every now and again, I have to terminate an employee that is under-performing. It's easily the worst part of my job. I hate it. Someone once told me that firing people sucks, and it never gets easier. After fifteen years of it, this absolutely holds true.
I had to let another guy go yesterday. As a business decision, it was long overdue. But this guy is also the nicest guy in the world and on a personal level, I really liked him. He broke down crying in our meeting and I haven't stopped feeling like a piece of #### since. I had a hard time sleeping the night before last because I knew it was coming and was dreading it. And last night, after the fact, wasn't any better.
Anyway, that's all. It sucks. Anybody else been there, done that?
Yes. It sucks. No way around it.
If I've learned anything over the years, it's trying to find that balance of doing all you can to help the person succeed, but also knowing when to it's time to move on.
It's also a delicate balance between what's best for the company and what's best for the employee. Hopefully, they're the same things but sometimes they're not.
In 2008, the boat industry as a whole was down 40+%. It was a bloodbath.
We had to cut our labor force at Bryant Boats and I was the guy who had to do it. It sucked.
In every case though when I met with someone to give them a lay off, I made the honest point that my job was to keep the company alive that I hoped they would want to come back to.
You have to be fair and beyond reproach in who gets cut.
I was and I was able to make the point to each person. And if memory serves, we were able to bring back every single person we laid off. The economy improved, and we handled things in a way that made them want to come back.
And for sure, a lay off is different from letting someone go for performance reasons. That's much more difficult as there's no way around it being about them. Not the economy.
In those cases, I think it's best to be honest, empathetic and concise.
Don't belabor the point. Don't act like they're really great because you both know if you truly thought that, you wouldn't be firing them.
Let them know you're thankful for the effort they put in and that you're sorry it isn't going to work.
I've found in most cases, it's often a compatibility thing where the person might be good in another situation with another company, it's just not a fit here.
Try not to take it personally. But it's hard.
And hopefully they don't take it personally. That's hard for them too. I had a guy at Bryant Boats tell me he was going to kill me after I let him go. That wasn't out of the realm of possibility for the guy. Thankfully, he didn't succeed. But it's tough for people.