“I need to fire an employee and I don’t want to get sued.”
That’s how it began with my client, Cliff. It’s how a lot of my clients come to me. It is very uncomfortable for them and a huge conflict. They typically like the people they hired, but as employees, those people are not producing what their businesses need to survive.
A lot of you can probably relate to Cliff’s story. (I can relate to Cliff’s story.)
He hired a friend who was kind of down on his luck. The friend had lost a job, and Cliff needed help in his store. Cliff said, “Great, I’m going to have you come work for me.”
Cliff’s Unmet Expectations
Expecting a certain level of loyalty and hard work, he took a chance on a friend. He even loaned money to this friend-turned-employee. Cliff had done a lot of different things over the years to help his friend out, but he didn’t get the loyalty he was expecting. Instead, he got an employee who:
- Talked down to him
- Showed up when he wanted
- Did his work however he wanted
- Started to act almost like he owned the business
If you’re in a similar situation, make that first choice right from the Third Ear Conflict Resolution process: forgive yourself.
Here’s what we learned as I worked with Cliff more.
- He had simply hired from a place of sympathy, and sympathy is not a good basis for making an employment decision. It’s kind of you, but you often set your employee up for failure because you haven’t made the hire consistent with the position. You want to make sure those two come together–that they are compatible, just like any other relationship. If they’re not compatible, it’s not going to work out well.
- Especially in light of his friend’s recent problems (which we later learned were self-inflicted), Cliff felt guilty about his own success.
- Cliff didn’t follow his own policies. How many of us do that? We create all those policies and procedures. We write our employee manuals and then we forget what’s in them. Worse yet, we pay someone else to write it for us and never read it.
You can learn to be a better manager. None of us is truly born with these skills, but I believe in you.
Read More
- Forgive Yourself for Hiring Quickly and Firing Slowly
- Employment Termination Can Be a Gift
- What to Tell Employees After a Co-Worker is Terminated
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