Advice on how to fire someone...ugh

In My Humble Opinion
1

One of the people who reports to me is doing a really shitty job and I probably have to fire her. She’s been with the org for five years, and although I’ve had a number of conversations with her about her performance, she’s still making the same errors in judgement and procedure. For the most part she refuses to even engage in these conversations, and I’m not sure how to improve the situation or whether I’m even willing to put any more energy into trying.

The thing is, she’s 60 years old, very overweight and has only a high school education. I mention these things because they contribute to my feeling that her odds of finding new employment after being fired seem pretty slim.

I don’t want to doom anyone, but I don’t want to deal with her BS anymore either. My boss has insisted that I document her errors, and I have been doing so. The file is two inches thick at this point and I really need to take some action to improve things.

Any management wizards out there have any ideas on how to improve the situation without ruining this woman’s life?

2

Since you’re looking for advice, I’ll move this to the advice forum, IMHO.

twickster, MPSIMS moderator

3

You need to be upfront and clear with her through this whole process so it comes as no surprise to her when she’s fired. You say you have a 2" file of her errors? Does she know about these? Does she know what the consequences are for failed improvement? Was she given a deadline for improvement?
The easiest way to fire someone for performance issues is to keep them in the know the whole time so it really comes as no surprise to them when they get the axe.

4

Hampshire makes good points.
But let me just throw out there that if you’ve invested effort in monitoring, warning, counseling and there’s no improvement than you need to do something - fire her, reclassify her duties, whatever it takes.
Cause the worst thing you can do is make threats of firing someone if their job performance doesn’t improve and not following through on them.
Won’t just affect her performance, it’ll creep into the rest of your team as well.

5

That’s a really tough position to be in, but just know that her personal issues or ability to find future employment is not on you, and that your priority is to your company in this situation. You’re the one that ends up looking bad if she continues to perform poorly.

Give her very clear, actionable directions on how to improve with very clear information on what will happen to her job if she fails to improve. If this has already been done, then she’s done this to herself.

Good luck, I don’t envy you.

6

I echo the above with the addition that this be in writing (as well as verbally). Depending on where you are, to fire someone you need to have a documented history of problems (if the problems are not major) or they can come back at you with a wrongful dismissal suit.

7

You’re not firing her. She clearly doesn’t want the job and you’re giving her her wish.

8

In my experience with performance issues that lead to a firing, there have been concrete steps to follow. If you have an HR department they can help you with the steps.

The steps for me have been:

  1. A series of conversations with the employee about their performance, discussing explicitly what aspects of their performance are falling short - being clear about what needs to be improved, how they can demonstrate improvement and how you will measure that improvement.

  2. A final conversation in which I state that if performance does not improve by date X, in a,b,c ways, the next step is a written warning and written performance improvement plan, which will be filed with HR.

  3. Delivery of a written warning and written performance improvement plan which details the performance issues, the performance standard the employee must reach, and concrete, measurable ways to demonstrate improvement. With dates by which they must demonstrate improvement.

  4. Some number of regular follow-up meetings in which you go over the performance improvement plan and discuss how the employee is or is not making visible measurable progress. Memos after each meeting summarizing the discussion filed with HR.

  5. A final follow-up meeting in which I state that if performance does not improve by date X, in the ways outlined in the performance improvement plan, the next step is termination.

  6. Termination. A couple of days prior to the meeting with the employee, notify HR that termination will take place on date Y, so they can do their paperwork and be prepared to receive the employee after your meeting. Meet with the employee, stating only that due lack of demonstrated improvement as outlined in the performance improvement plan, they are terminated immediately. Have a box of tissues and a cardboard box so they can clean out their desk. Take them to their desk, let them get their personal belongings, then deliver them to HR. In some companies HR does the termination conversation, not you.

It’s a lot of work for the manager, but you owe it to the employee to make sure they understand not only that their performance is inadequate but HOW they can demonstrate improvement. And they deserve an opportunity to fix the problems.

HTH

9

It is also helpful to discuss with the employee why their poor performance is a bad thing. A surprising number of people don’t really understand the impact their performance has on other employees’ ability to do their jobs, company profits, company image, team morale, etc.

In my performance improvement plans I do outline in what ways poor performance on a particular task or failure to meet a particular responsibility has a negative impact.

10

I’m surprised that your HR department isn’t supporting you in this process - when I’ve had to fire someone they have a series of very explicit steps to follow much like those outlined by Motorgirl.

But you shouldn’t worry about ruining her life or guilty if you do have to terminate her. If you were being capricious or unfair, then sure feel guilty, but once you’ve followed all of the legal and company-policy required steps then it isn’t about you deciding to fire her - she has decided to get fired. An employee turns in the performance she chooses to and as a supervisor it isn’t your job to pretend things are hunky dory when they aren’t.

11

I agree. If you give them the means and the opportunity to improve, it’s not your failure, it’s theirs.

That’s not to say you won’t feel bad about it. You will. I still feel bad about the last one, and it was more than 2 years ago. If you don’t feel some empathy for the person you’re firing you shouldn’t be managing people. Provided they’re not getting fired because they tried to kill you or something. :slight_smile:

12
  1. Have another colleague in the room to witness the process, even if s/he doesn’t contribute much to the conversation.
  2. Come directly to the point,
  3. Don’t engage in an argument, you are informing her of a decision that has already been made, you are done trying to get her to do her job,
  4. Do it on a Friday in the afternoon,
  5. If you are giving her some notice before the terminatioin starts, pay her, but don’t let her continue to show up for work,
  6. Terminate any internet access, passwords, etc. immediately upon termination,
  7. As soon as it is over, both you and your colleague should write up a brief summary of what transpired and email it to HR so that there is a record of your version of events,
13

HR is supportive, and has outlined the same steps that Motorgirl mentioned. We’ve had the conversations and we’ve made a performance plan. Performance has not improved so it’s time to take the next step.

The problem isn’t that I don’t know how to fire someone, it’s that I’m going to look/feel like an ogre for firing this particular person. She is much loved by all other employees, probably because they (rightly) have no idea that she sucks at her job. She also has quite a few deficits in her future resume and I worry that she’ll never find gainful employment again. I know I don’t have to worry about that, and that making sure she’s ok is not my prime directive…it just sucks.

The thing is that even with all of the conversations and written plans, she seems incapable of improving her performance. It’s like she thinks her errors are just accidents, rather than failure to follow procedures that would eliminate them.

Conversations usually go like this:

Hey sucky employee, it looks like you entered the wrong data here, can you help me figure out what happened?

Sucky employee: oh man, I’m sorry. Dang. heh heh, I suck so bad, you should just fire me, heh heh. No, really I’m sorry, I just don’t know what the problem is…

So then I say well, here’s a strategy for making sure this kind of error doesn’t happen again, please use it every single time.

And then she doesn’t use the strategy and we start back at the beginning, only this time we document the conversation in writing and copy HR.

And here I am. Obviously I have to fire her, that’s clear. But how am I going to do that without dooming her to eternal poverty and gaining a reputation as a totally unfeeling bitch around the office?

14

Call her at home. Then, when she doesn’t come to work, you tell everyone she quit. Or died.

15

For Christ’s sake, grow a pair and stop screwing around. Proceed with the termination today. You have a business to run, right? You owe it to the owners or stockholders to fix this problem ASAP.

16

Yes.

Put her on a PIP (Performance Improvement Program). Work out the details with HR and your boss, and then call the employee into a meeting with them (HR and your boss), and explain to the employee that her performance is not satisfactory, and that you intend to work with her, for three months, on a program to improve her performance (and bring it up to a satisfactory level).

It will be a pain in the ass, because you’ll have to micro-manage her for the duration, and the PIP itself needs objectives that are identifiable, measurable and attainable (figuring all this out can be a PITA).

Or, you can just can her. Sounds like you’ve done a lot already.

17

In my state, an employee that is fired for poor performance, but not misconduct, is eligible for unemployment benefits. If you want to do what you can to help the woman out, perhaps you could make it explicit in her termination letter that she has not committed misconduct–the termination is purely because of her inability to perform the job properly. And maybe see if you can get HR to not oppose her claim for benefits.

18

You are going to look like an ogre. Welcome to management. (i don’t mean that snarky, just…it is part of the job.)

It does suck, it really does. You’ve worked together for some time, you may even like her as a person and know about her grandkids and what church she goes to. Give yourself permission to feel badly for her as a person but as a manager be confident that you have given her every fair chance and are doing the right thing. It isn’t kind to your other direct reports if they are cleaning up after her constantly, even if they think they don’t mind.

19

This. A bad empployee that management won’t deal with really hurts the morale of your good workers.

20

On the bright side, in two years the ex-employee can start collection Social Security. If she gets unemployment, she might end out worrying about a job for only a year or so.

No reason to feel bad. You’re doing what’s right by your company and the people you manage.

Bri2k