Firing someone

16 Mar 2018

It’s not exactly a joyride, but if you want to manage, you have to get comfortable firing. This post isn’t about the mechanics; it’s about the mentality. How you handle it mentally can be the difference between a straightforward, successful firing, and a long, painful, and highly disruptive firing.

I’d like to illustrate with two anonymized examples: Bip and Bop. ¹

Bip was the one of the first people I had to manage out. When he arrived at my company, he’d had high marks, almost as if he was going to slot in as our best engineer. He came into the company and he was…ok. And really, depending on your standards, maybe that is fine. Didn’t meet the high expectations, but he was contributing and helping the train move. Over time though, that worn gloss began to tarnish. Feedback from his teammates began telling a different story, of a person who often undercommitted, who frequently put in poor quality work.

Bip’s teammates started pulling me aside and telling me how Bip was not really helping the overall cause. In fact in some situations, they just did the work for him so they could avoid delays. Here is where I got more deeply involved, nearly micromanaging him to ensure his work was getting done. When leaning in more, even when he executed on his tasks, the quality was pretty poor, and important things were getting missed. We entered the Managing Out phase at that point. The mechanics of managing out someone depends on the company you’re working for. Regardless of the company policies, I prefer being as direct as possible (I’ve seen other managers take passive aggressive tactics and I strive for a person to leave a job with an understanding of why.)

In the end, I was somewhat methodical about it. I wanted confirmation that Bip simply wasn’t going to cut it. Firing someone is a cost–the lost productivity (however small), and the time and effort of finding a suitable replacement. But with care, the decision can be made with a clear conscience and a confidence that the team will be better off. In Bip’s case, once I was certain there was no repairing his performance, I immediately dug into getting him out of the company. This was because, in my heart, I knew this was the right thing.

Now let’s take Bop. Bop had been at the company for awhile, and I’d seen him present on a couple of things here and there. I’d been pretty pumped about what he’d presented. Things changed at my company and I ended up managing him and a few others. At the time of transfer, my immediate supervisor pointed out how bad Bop’s contributions actually were, and that he needed to be managed out. This was surprising to me because I’d seen those snazzy presentations and felt like he was making meaningful contributions. Because I trusted my supervisor, I started the process of managing out Bop.

But I’ll be honest: at first I did not do a great job. I lagged on my timing, I took it slow on gathering paperwork and getting help from HR. Correcting any personnel issue should be the first item on a manager’s list, but mentally this was the third or fourth one.

When I first started managing Bop, I didn’t believe this was the best move. However, as I started paying more attention to him, my faith began to crack. I’d come by and find him snoozing at his desk. I’d ask for things because I needed them for reporting or planning, and they would arrive late or not at all. Over time I could see: Bop was streaky. He’d pull an all-nighter and spin up something that was fascinating but it was thin, and when looking at the problems the group was trying to solve, it was tangential. He was not advancing the cause. When I gave him feedback, he promised improvement, but let me down after a few days. I also noticed his coworkers were staying later to pick up the slack, and one of them was starting to get frustrated. Morale was now starting to sag because of this employee.

It was around this time that I began to believe. Once I’d turned that corner, I put more of my heart into managing him out. It became not only easy, but it started getting done. As we communicated over the next week or two, Bop seemed to understand it, too. At least, he was in the same universe of thought: this situation was not the best thing for anyone, including him.

I’ve had to let people go, let them move on, fire them. I’m not an axe guy, but I’ve had to manage out nearly a dozen people at this point in my career. The best advice I can give: you have to believe. You have to know that this is the best move for the company. In my experience, it is often better for the employee, too.

Any firings or layoffs that you have to execute, you’ve got to take time for yourself to fully understand it, and buy into it, yourself. I realize not everyone will have the luxury to go through that exercise, but when you invest the time into really thinking it through, then getting it done becomes easier. You have to believe.