Damn, that is one helluva severence package, even for someone who did not cause lots of problems. Around here, we recently had two hotels go under and basically, the employees found out the morning they showed up for work. No severence, no insurance, nada no more. And most of the folks around here (tourist area, low wages for hotel work) end up surviving week to week on a paycheck, so in a case like that, it really sucks.
At least you and the staff are okay, and here’s hoping he gets everything straightened out in his life, whether he thinks he needs to or not.
I’m glad to hear it went well, or as well as it could have. But as others have pointed out, don’t let your guard down just yet. I don’t think there was much else you could do to help him for a couple of reasons. First, you can’t let HR suck up all of the revenue with employee assistance, unless that’s what the store wants to do (a store with happy, well-adjusted employees is an interesting concept). Second, alcoholic behavior includes blaming everyone else but the alcoholic, and alcoholics will go to great lengths to avoid self-incrimination. It takes a lot of deft psychological maneuvering to get an alcoholic to break through the wall of denial, something most businesses are poorly-equipped to do. It sounds like you did everything you could - the fired employee is ultimately responsible for his behavior and his loss of his job because of his behavior.
First, I’m glad things went reasonably well this morning Biotop. This part of your last post surprised me somewhat. I’ve never made a statement to someone I have fired that we could talk at sometime in the future about his or her job status because at that time, the job status is “you ain’t got one here.”
Again, I’m posting based only what I read about the guy in this thread but I would have never made that statement. I’m sure you did it to help calm the guy down and smooth over a potentially violent situation which this absolutely was. However, now he’s thinking he’ll get his job back if he gets some counseling or something. IMHO it’s always best not to make those kinds of promises.
If he were to come back, think about how the rest of the employees, especially those who complained about him, feel. It would look like you don’t take them seriously. Please don’t take this guy back.
I did this based on the advice of a counselor whom our store has on retainer. We give her a deep discount on shopping, and she gives any employee who needs counseling a discount.
The counselor said that offering this “separation time” might be a good way to help the guy deal emotionally with his problems and reach out for help. But if the guy calls in a month and a half and tells me he’s gone through counseling, I absolutely will not hire him back. But I hope at that time I would be able to talk to him more rationally about his performance and give him the confidence to seek employment elsewhere.
Again, I never promised to hire him back, and would not. Our counselor volunteered to call this employee and try to give him someone to talk to. But I’m not sure if that’s the right thing to do or not. In Scary Employee’s mind HE doesn’t have the problem. We do.
Keep the local Police Dept advised on the situation. I have been on quite a few scary employee calls. They can keep an eye on the parking lot to make sure he’s not hanging out. I’m sure they would prefer to know whats going on ahead of time in case there is a 911 call from there later. How helpfull they are of course depends on the department.
A counselor advised you to offer “separation time” instead of firing him Biotop? I’m confused now. It sounds like he got fired but it was put to him as something else. I think I’d be searching for somebody else for counseling services. Bad bad bad advice that.
She shouldn’t call him. He will seek treatment for whatever reasons when and only when he is ready. He is the only person who can do anything for him right now.
I have had to do that a few times in my current position - and no matter how much it is warranted, it is never fun or comfortable. The worst for me was when a man in his mid-50s started to cry.
The one time I got fired I had dreams (and fantasies) about killing/hurting/maiming my boss and/or his family for a full year.
So don’t go letting your guard down too early…
What a long frustrating day. I’ve always strained to avoid firing people…because there is usually some way to try for a win/win situation. Usually employees who don’t work out in one area or another eventually figure out on their own that they don’t fit in with the job.
It shouldn’t be easy to fire anyone, but I sure wish there were more resources available to help both the company and the employee when things go wrong. Oh well, I did my best and I guess that’s something.