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Letting an employee go is difficult, but good management skills help.
Getting a good employee mix is one of the most powerful things you can do to fuel your company’s success. Trying to move ahead with someone who doesn’t contribute in a timely, accurate and agreeable manner is like trying to drive with the parking brake on. It’s not just difficult: It damages. There are several ways business owners and managers get stuck in difficult employee situations. Observing and interviewing people in this plight has led us to useful conclusions. Roadblocks to putting the best employee group together for your company are easier to get around if you understand what’s holding you back from action and what to do about it.
Here’s the list of issues and recommendations for working through them. The first roadblocks are the ones in your own head.
Most managers have to get a grip on the situation by having a serious talk with themselves before they begin with the employee in question. After working with all kinds of bosses in challenging situations, we accumulated a list of why it’s difficult and what might be done to make the situation more manageable.
Have I supervised well?
Have you held the employee accountable for actions? Have you guided, coached, supported, reinforced and given clear, regular feedback? Have you explored with the employee why performance is suffering? You must know the answer so you can decide if you’re going to try to save a potentially good employee or let a problem employee go. Performance appraisals, the acid test for clear feedback, do not have to be complicated. All that’s necessary is a page with the employee’s name, date, a list of what’s going well, a list of what isn’t working, and goals for a set period of time—along with the employee’s and your signatures. The purpose of an appraisal is to formalize two-way feedback and ensure it occurs.
If not done candidly, the supervisor ends up with a file of glowing appraisals about an employee who has been a problem for a while. Postponing unpleasantness makes it more difficult to take corrective action. It is not unusual for an outsider to be called in to help resolve a conflict or performance problem only to discover that past appraisals don’t substantiate the difficulties. This usually is because the supervisor didn’t want the hassle of telling someone he wasn’t performing well. If this hasn’t been done, now is the time to begin.
Do I have the authority to fire?
Be sure and check to see if you have the authority to do what you’re about to do. Check with your boss and up the chain if you must. The personnel manual may say you can terminate an employee, but the way the company actually works may be different. If you’re concerned you won’t do it right and will have to take the employee back, checking on authority and procedure is essential.
What will others think of me?
As long as the termination is done fairly and thoroughly, this usually won’t be a problem. If your relationship with employees has been fair and humane all along, most people will assume you’ve treated the person leaving with the same respect and dignity. You are bound not to discuss personnel issues with other employees, so your actions have to speak for you.
What if I get sued?
The short answer here is to follow your own employee handbook, which presumably your attorney has reviewed. Because Washington is an at-will employment state, you have more options, but you must still follow a process. An amicable end to an employment relationship may be negotiated by using retirement, a payout that may or may not include placement through a service, and other creative solutions. Be sure you check with your attorney or a human resources professional before you begin the termination process. It can save you a tremendous headache in the long run.
Have I accommodated appropriately?
The issue here is to make sure you have accommodated reasonably. Many companies are quite good about this for physical situations, but managers don’t always know what to do when personal issues interfere with performance. Everyone has family, transportation, medical or life challenges. There is a difference between those who can manage for a short time and get past the difficult situations and those who have ongoing dramas. This is particularly difficult for compassionate bosses, so it helps to talk to a more objective third party just to get clear about how flexible you should be. While you should make accommodations, be reasonable about the length of accommodation for difficulties because you may be stressing the rest of the organization. While you’re bending over backward to help one employee, you want to be sure you explain to others they will get the same fair treatment.
What if the business is damaged?
When letting someone go, you may be concerned about proprietary information or customer relations. You may have agreements in place about this that provide some protection, but be proactive. Contact key customers so you can manage rumors and retain relationships.
Can’t I just avoid conflict?
If we had to point out the Achilles’ heel of managers, it would be the inability to deal with conflict. As Malcolm Forbes put it, “Work without conflict is a hobby.” Some people confuse conflict with cruelty; seen a different way, it’s the genesis of creativity.
Conflict management is a skill you can learn, just like learning how to read a balance sheet. You can learn to address conflict without being angry and disagree while using compassion and openness. It is crucial to coaching and developing employees because there will be disagreements about what is required for a job. If you don’t address difficult situations as they arise, you will not be managing. One of the simplest ways to deal with difficult situations is to get agreement about performance before anything goes wrong. It’s easier to discuss expectations and put them in an agreement and refer to it than it is to assume people think like you do and become angry and frustrated when they don’t.
What about all the money he brings into the company?
We have never seen a situation in which the departure of a top rainmaker who was hard to work with caused a company to make less money. That’s an impressive statement. Usually, other employees feel more free to work and appreciate having someone difficult taken from the scene. You discover you were spending a lot of money maintaining a condition that really wasn’t very functional for the company.
Can I save the employee?
Employee performance turnarounds don’t just happen. They’re usually inspired by some pretty straight talk and management. Maintaining the energy and attention required is worth it since employees are an investment and terminations are costly. We’ve seen some amazing turnarounds, but if you start and don’t follow through, it increases the cynicism in the company and actually makes it worse. This is why it’s so important to think through all options and what each would take.
Breaking up is hard, but it may be the best thing for everyone concerned.
Lunell Haught, Ph.D., with Haught Strategies, is a certified management consultant and leads a group of owners of multimillion-dollar companies in the Inland Northwest. She also is an adjunct faculty member of Gonzaga University’s Masters in Organizational Leadership program, teaching conflict management.
http://www.haughtstrategies.com • 509-443-1319 •
Laura Asbell, Ph.D., with Asbell Professional Group, integrates her background in clinical psychology and her role as an organizational consultant to increase organizational effectiveness. She offers leadership coaching, team management and workplace development for effective business and organizational systems.
www.asbellgroup.com • 509-534-1731 • | 
