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Know When to Cut Your Losses

Saying good-bye is hard. But greeting an employee, day in and day out, who just can’t cut it is even harder. It’s a reminder that you are paying for incompetence.

No matter how much potential some employees seem to possess or how much help you’ve given them, they still produce substandard work. The longer you wait to cut them loose, the more your motives will be questioned. Then you’ll have to answer questions like, “After all these years, why is my work suddenly a problem?”

And if you haven’t communicated the employee’s failings clearly or if you lack documentation, firing them will seem arbitrary. After all, incompetent people are often the last to recognize their shortcomings.

Former General Electric chairman and CEO Jack Welch put it bluntly in a news story, “As long as the turkeys aren’t being told they’re turkeys, they don’t mind being there.”

But how can you tell when you’ve really reached the point of no return? Listen to your gut and look to your paper trail. It they are in synch, then it’s time to act.

If your aim is to assemble a highly qualified staff, you’ll have to say goodbye to a few liabilities to make room for more assets.