The BIGG Successs Show
I May Have to Fire an Employee. Any Suggestions?
We help a first time manager deal with an under-performing employee. Read our bigg advice with our show summary at biggsuccess.com.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we offer suggestions to a first-time manager on firing an employee. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. Rick sent us his big challenge. About six months ago, he became a manager for the first time. And he has an employee who's underperforming. Rick thinks that he may need to fire this employee. Something he's never done before. And he said he would really like to hear any suggestions we could provide. Well, you know, if you manage people, you'll almost certainly have to fire people. I remember once, Mary Lynn, I had to fire myself. You weren't getting the job done? That's exactly right. It was a rough conversation. Well, it is just a fact and a part of the position of being a manager that sometimes he got to fire people. But there are ways to do it to minimize the damage. Remember that Cheers episode where Norm Peterson became the executive's executioner? His job was to fire people. So he would take them out for drinks. And by the time it was all over, the employee who was being fired felt so sorry for Norm that they didn't mind being fired. And I still remember a norm quote, which was, "It's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing milk bone underwear." Okay, so there's one option. Not one we necessarily recommend for the real world, though. So our first piece of advice for you, Rick, is to look to your company's policy manual for guidance and also to discuss this with your boss so you fully understand company protocol, precedence, and that sort of thing. And second, if it's a surprise, you've done something wrong. And I think that's true, Mary Lynn, except for the most egregious situations the employee who's being fired shouldn't be surprised by it. Now, in this case, Rick, you say that the employee has been underperforming, but we don't know if it's been discussed with him or her. So to make sure that they're not surprised, you need to follow a process. And George, in your years of owning businesses and managing people, this is a process that you've used. Absolutely, Mary Lynn, and it basically just involves a series of warnings with repercussions for not correcting any deficiencies and performance. And for example, in round one, you get together with the employee, you tell them what the problem is, and talk about what needs to be done to correct it. Set a time when you're going to review it again to see if it has been corrected, and if it hasn't, what are the consequences? Now, what might be an example of the consequences in round one? Well, obviously, it depends upon the severity of the situation, but you may say that you're going to suspend them for a day or two or three without pay. And you'll find that in some cases, the employee may leave at that point. Well, you know, that's fine. That's their choice. It makes it easier. So now we're going to repeat this process. So what happens if it's not corrected in the next review? Well, each time you're kind of ramping up the ramifications, right, they're going to be greater. So the next round, you may say, "Okay, we're going to review again, and if it's not corrected, then we may have to terminate employment." Which means if you reach the next review and it's not corrected, the result should be obvious. Yeah, that's absolutely right, Mary Lynn. And the thing is, though, because of the process you're using, I think this is as humane as you can possibly do it, as fair as you can possibly do it, because you're given the person the chance to improve their performance. The other thing is, it also covers your rear because you've documented this process and had the employee sign off each step of the way. Coming up, George is going to share a story of how he put this process to use with one of his employees. Today, we're answering Rick's big challenge, and Rick's the first time manager who may need to fire an employee. Now, we've discussed a process to ease the pain on both sides, and George, you have an example of using this. Yeah, in my early business days, I had an employee, and I guess I should tell you, the nature of my business at that time was that our employees worked in an unsupervised environment. They were out at our clients, homes, offices, stores, whatever. Okay, location. Absolutely, and so I hired this young man, and it just turned out that he could not work in an unsupervised environment. So was he taking too long to get the work done? Were customers complaining about the job that he was doing? Well, mainly, he just wasn't getting the necessary result. His output was too low, and so we went through this process that we've discussed today, and it came to the time when I knew I needed to let him go, and it's kind of interesting, Marilyn. I recommended that he get a job in a place where someone could watch over him, and I told him that once he got used to working in a supervised situation, feel free to come back, reapply, and we'd try to find a place for him. Did he come back? It's interesting. No, he never came back. We've remained friendly, but he found that he actually liked working in a supervised environment. So the point is, even firing someone doesn't have to be negative. Offer any help you can provide, make suggestions, realize that sometimes it's just not a good fit. It doesn't mean they're a bad person, or couldn't be helpful to any employer. It just means it's not working out for both of you here. And thanks, Rick, so much for sending us your big challenge, and we know you'll handle this situation just fine. If you've got a big challenge that you'd like us to help you out with, type it in our big challenge box on our blog today at Big Success. That's Big with 2G's Success.com. That's also where we have a written summary of today's show. And next time, we'll talk about things we admire about our dads. Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com (gentle music)