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Q: You
recently wrote a column about hiring the right way. Can
you follow up with the same detail on firing? I think I
was fired the wrong way. Name Withheld, Balch Springs, Texas
A: We wouldn’t be surprised, since that happens far more
often than not.
In fact,
letting people go in a way that doesn’t engender a lot
of bitterness is so rare in business you might not think
it’s possible.
It is.
But it
requires an entirely unnatural act for managers: abiding
the person being fired through the whole agonizing
process. Because half of firing correctly is not running
away after you say goodbye. The other half is never
letting that word be a surprise in the first place.
Now,
we’re not talking about firing for integrity violations.
When that happens, make sure everyone knows why you’re
kicking the person out—a teaching moment—and get on with
business.
No,
we’re talking about letting someone go for
under-performance, a much more fraught event for one
major reason. In such cases, the person doing the job
and the person getting the job done to him are almost
always on clashing emotional lifecycles.
Take the
case of Bob, a typical overworked manager who wants
minimal angst in his organization, and Richard, a nice
subordinate who has been vaguely underperforming for a
few years. Eventually Richard makes enough mistakes that
Bob wants him to go. The decision gnaws at him, though,
and for weeks, he wrestles with his emotions.
He
agonizes to his wife, “Richard is going to freak out.
He’s so clueless—and his daughter just started college.”
Meanwhile, Richard continues to plod away. He may sense
Bob’s awkwardness, but assumes it’s nothing personal.
After all, he reassures himself, his last performance
review had no red flags; it gave him a 3-percent raise
and some OK comments.
Finally,
Richard really blows a project and Bob has had it. He
calls him in and lets loose.
“People
have been carrying your load for too long and no one can
take it anymore,” he says. “You have to go home. I’m
sorry.”
Richard
sits there like he’s been sucker-punched. Bob mistakes
the silence as acceptance and hastily ends the meeting.
Big mistake. Within 24 hours, Richard starts feeling
anger and hostility. No one ever told him he was
screwing up! His firing, he convinces himself, is an
outrage.
Now,
while Richard is getting madder by the minute, Bob is
feeling better than in a long time. “I finally did it,”
he tells his wife. “What a relief! I can’t wait to find
someone new.”
He asks
HR to put together a decent severance package for
Richard, gives him two weeks to “settle things up,” and
then works very hard not to bump into him in the
hallway.
Is it
any wonder, then, when Richard files a lawsuit against
the company or becomes a whistleblower about a perceived
wrongdoing? Is it any wonder that when Richard is
finally hired by a customer, that company suddenly
doesn’t want to do business with Bob anymore?
Of
course not. And yet, this scenario—the firing
lifecycle—happens again and again in business. As
different emotions play out, managers feel relief while
their “victims” feel everything but. That creates a
personal and organizational car wreck.
Which
brings us back to what managers must do.
Let’s
start with preventing the surprise of goodbye, which can
easily be accomplished with a rigorous system of candid
performance evaluations, twice a year at the minimum.
Every employee must always know where he stands,
especially if it is close to the exit.
With the
surprise taken out of goodbye, the only other part about
firing correctly is the “abiding,” which preserves the
dignity of the person being let go. Start by giving the
departing employee six months to find a place where his
or her skills are a better match, and in that period,
fight any appearance of abandonment.
Yes, you
may feel as if you’ve already spent enough time on the
under-performing employee. The facts are you need to
spend a bit more. Bob thought his job was done when he
fired Richard. It had just begun.
Indeed,
a good firing means you become a coach and advisor. You
take the employee for periodic lunches and check in with
him more often than that. You suggest new career
directions or possible companies to join. In every way,
you help make their exit as devoid of humiliation as
possible.
Look,
firing is the worst part of business for everyone
involved. It sounds like it was painful for you—and not
nearly painful enough for your manager.
*****
Jack
and Suzy Welch are the authors of the international
best-seller Winning. They are eager to hear about your
career dilemmas and challenges at work, and look forward
to answering your questions in future columns. You can
e-mail them questions at Winning@nytimes.com. Please
include your name, occupation, city and country. |
