Fire the Incompetents

THE MOST STRESSFUL job in management is firing an employee. The second most stressful job in management is being fired yourself. But if you don't get some experience with the first job, you are going to get some experience with the second.

A manager who hires an incompetent person is himself incompetent. A manager who keeps an incompetent person in place is even more incompetent. The longer you keep the wrong person in a job, the more incompetent you look to everybody around you. You look incompetent to your superiors, your peers, and your subordinates. Keeping the wrong person in place demoralizes your staff members. They conclude that if an incompetent person gets paid the same as they do, and receives the same privileges, what's the use of trying to do a good job?

Of course, everyone knows who is competent and who is not incompetent. They know very quickly. In every office, every staff member knows the level of competence of every other person. There is nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide.

Don't Be Cruel

The cruelest thing that you can do to a person, once you have decided in your heart that this person is not going to work out in your business, is to keep the person in the job. The kindest thing that you can do for incompetent workers is to set them free. Let them go so that they can find a job in which they have a future and where there are more possibilities.

Why is it that many managers sacrifice their own careers, and often their own mental health, by avoiding the hard work of firing an incompetent person? The answer is often self-delusion. The manager thinks that he is doing the incompetent person a favor by keeping him on the payroll. Sometimes the manager even thinks that the incompetent person is suddenly going to change, do a complete reversal, and become a competent member of the staff.

The real reason that the manager does not fire is cowardice. The manager is not being kind and compassionate. The manager is being cruel and heartless. The manager is inflicting damage on the other person by refusing to do the right thing.

In follow-up interviews, fully 70 percent of people who were fired knew that it was coming. Their only question was why the manager took so much time to let them go. It is difficult for a person to fire himself. Even if he is in the wrong job, and dislikes the job, and is doing it poorly, and is not getting along with anyone else, he needs the manager to have the courage to put him out of his misery.

Fire Professionally

How do you fire the person who is wrong for the job? There is a simple process that is guaranteed to work and will keep you out of court, in most cases.

First, you make the decision to let the person go at a specific time on a specific day, and then you refuse to budge. You say to yourself, “I am going to call this person in at ten o'clock on Friday morning and let him or her go.”

Second, when you call the person in, you close the door and sit down. (It's even better to go to the other person's office so that you can get up and leave afterward.) You then use these carefully chosen words: “I have given this situation a lot of thought. I have come to the conclusion that this is not the right job for you, and that you are not the right person for this job. And that I think that you would be happier doing something else.”

Once you have begun the firing process, you absolutely refuse to discuss the past performance of the employee or anything that the individual has or has not done on the job. It is too late for that. It is all over. The job is finished. The person is gone.

Practice Broken Record

At this point, it is quite common for the employee to argue with you. The person will often be surprised, shocked, sad, crying, angry, abusive, and a variety of other things. Remember, this is a high-stress experience for the employee.

But whatever the employee says, you remain completely calm, like a stone Buddha. You nod patiently and respectfully and wait until the individual stops talking and takes a breath. Then, you repeat your previous statement: “The fact is that this is not the right job for you, and you are not the right person for this job, and I think that you will be happier doing something else.”

In assertiveness training, this is called the “broken record.” You repeat the same message, in the same words, in a calm tone of voice, over and over again until the other person finally gives up and accepts being fired.

Have a Plan

At this point, you can then explain what is going to happen from this moment forward. If it is an unpleasant firing, you will want the person to pack up and leave the office immediately. You will want to have someone ready to sit in with the person while he packs, to watch and make sure that he does not damage anything.

Severance pay is extremely emotional. Most people have no savings. When they are fired from a job, their first thought is often panicky. They'll wonder, “How am I going to eat or pay my rent?”

Be prepared. Prepare your severance packet in advance. Unless you have a written contract, there is no legal requirement to give a severance of any kind. But the convention is one week of severance for each year of service. Anything more or less than that is completely up to your discretion and dependent on the way people behave after learning that they have been fired.

Have a Witness

One final point: If you are a man who is firing a woman, have another woman sit in on the firing meeting with you. If you are a woman who is firing a man, have a man sit in with you. If you have the slightest concern that this person may accuse you of sexual harassment, always have an opposite sex witness in the room with you when you conduct the firing interview. In this way, you can protect yourself completely against the possibility of being sued.

There are many other tips and techniques that you can use to fire effectively. It is a skill that you must learn as part of your business skill repertoire. These basics will help you to clear out the incompetent people in your workforce who may be dragging you down and holding you back.

Remember these words of wisdom: “The best time to fire a person is the first time it crosses your mind.”