Not for cause, but because the job is being eliminated. I’ve done it many times before, but it doesn’t suck any less. The whole process has gone on for almost 2 months. I’ve fought for alternatives, but lost. I hate this. I hate that he’s losing his job. I hate that my team is losing someone. That’s all.
I feel for you. I always hated that part of my job. I was so nervous the first time I ever had to fire someone. My supervisor sat in with me. After the deed was done, we looked at each other and started to laugh like a couple of maniacs. It was so strange. I felt terrible, but that was how it affected me. It helped that we were firing this person for refusing to bath. But still, it sucks.
Good luck. I hope it goes as well as can be expected.
Thank you. I would be fine if it was for cause. But it’s not his fault. It’s a budget thing, which I understand, but still sucks.
Unfortuately I have had to do this half a dozen times over the past 15 years (and sometimes to up to 10 people on the same day) and it never stops sucking. What has changed is that 15 years ago I hated laying off good people. Now I hate laying off bad people even more, after watching a couple of people have their lives completely collapse after the layoff from a long-time job that they should never have been hired for in the first place. The good people you figure will find another position pretty soon. They guy with no degree, poor communication skills, and no technical skills, who somehow finagled a job requiring all three and kept it for 20 years is toast.
It sucks when you lose a job through no fault of your own. A company I worked for years ago moved my job 2000- miles across the country, and I wasn’t interested in the move. They took care of me though, but still, it was like losing a home.
My condolences to both of you. It is never any fun - even when it is for cause.
At least you care. My last boss was openly gleeful at the idea of getting to lay-off people. (“Look at how much money we’re going to save, Carol!”)
Thank you.
It does. He will get decent severance, and he’s skilled enough to get another job, but with the economy as it is I suspect it will take some time. I’ll write him a great letter of recommendation too.
You sound like a great person to work for. I wish you both well.
Thank you.
This is one of the main reasons I don’t want to go into management. In my field, there are too many layoffs…I’d never be able to avoid having to do this to someone.
I’ve been laid off twice. One of the two was arguably the best thing to happen to me professionally…it resulted in a very nice 10 year career at my last company.
Good luck…to you, and your employee.
-D/a
Sorry to hear it, I feel your pain.
I had to fire a guy about 6 years ago, I had moved him into Quality from the production line because he was sharp and a really hard worker. 10 months later they slashed our budgets and I had to fire someone, he was the least experienced so I had to let him go.
I felt horrible, if I’d left him in production he probably would have survived. And then, as if I didn’t feel horrible enough, three days before I was to fire him he informed that his wife was pregnant!
I kept in touch and wrote the most glowing recommendation letter ever, he got another job pretty quickly, but it was awful.
Oddly enough, that’s not always the case. At the end of last year (Merry Christmas :rolleyes: ) my husband had to fire one of his draftsmen. The guy had been with the company for a long time and was making a ridiculous amount of money because they just gave automatic raises for years. In reality, he was grossly overpaid according to the pay band for this area, and he wasn’t very good at his job. In fact, when given something new to do, he’d just turn around and tell someone else “I need you to do this for me.” My husband really hates firing people - he tried to coach and train this guy, but he just refused to move out of his comfort zone, so he had to go. And he did find a new job within 6 months - oddly enough, working for someone my husband used to work for some years back. Anyway, even incompetent folks can land on their feet these days… sometimes.
Still, sucks you have to do this. But such is life.
My dad is fond of saying “work ain’t supposed to be fun; that’s why they pay you.” Sorry you’ve hit a rough patch, having to fire people who have done no wrong - no doubt this sucks - but things like this are why you earn the big bucks.
I used to feel bad for my manager during annual performance reviews because he always seemed really uncomfortable providing unflinchingly honest feedback. But then I reminded myself that he chose his job, and he’s making a lot more money than me. Despite those sucky parts, overall he’s got what he wants - a job with a lot more influence and salary than mine - and I hope you do too.
Back when I was in Management, letting someone go was the only part of my job that I thoroughly loathed . . . even if the person deserved it. The first time, I was supposed to do it on a Friday, but chickened out, deciding to wait until Monday morning. It was a truly horrible weekend. When I finally did it on Monday, I was sweating and stammering and shaking, almost in tears. But the guy just calmly said “ok,” got up and walked out.
I was going to post “That’s fucked up!” but then I realized … it’s a matter of some people having very vastly different priorities in life. For your boss, money was a higher priority than having (or showing) empathy.
Hope it went OK, relatively speaking, Southern Yankee.
Thank you. It’s done. It went as well as can be expected.