You must fire one of these employees. Which one?

In My Humble Opinion
101

No, because if I had such an ability, I’d never use it to spy on people.

Now, if it was an unconscious ability (I “heard” what people were thinking without being able to stop it, a-la What Women Want) no, because it’s not the same as openly expressing hateful terminology and anyway, I’m pretty sure I’d be firing all my staff. Avenue Q put it best, I think…

102

Economically, yes… BUT, if you’re “laid off” you can tell a new employer you were let go because of cost cutting. If you were fired for cause, that’s a bit tougher.

  1. What the hell is Skald (who is male, as far as I can tell) doing lurking in the ladies’ room. Fire him :D.
  2. Who on earth was Sasha talking to, that she felt she could make that kind of utterance in a public place. Yeah, a bathroom isn’t officially public but if it’s in the office (or a restaurant near the office) it’s not something she can count on being public. That lapse of judgment is the only reason I’d consider letting her go - but we all do stoopid stuff from time to time and if it truly is isolated, a private word should be all that is needed.

From a pragmatic standpoint: do you need to let just 1 person go or 2? Sasha - as vile as her beliefs are - stays.

As wretched as it seems to kick someone while they’re down, Cote would be my next choice. She refused help until forced, and the help isn’t, um, helping. Put her on medical leave, transfer her to an admin position or whatever if you can, but she’s not even REMOTELY doing her job.

Then it’s Emily. She’s been told not to do BLM work on the job but she has been. Now, if she’s also managing to do her job, she’s clearly able to be flexible - but she’s not exactly stellar at the job. If you do want to get rid of her at some point, make sure the “don’t do that at work” is documented if it isn’t already. Then that’s your reason for letting her go.