Reframe the Way You Think About Firing Employees

Firing people is never easy. But when you manage a lot of people over the course of your career, it’s inevitable that you’re going to make a bad hire, have under-performing employees, and even wind up with a few difficult people.

If you don’t have the courage to do the hard, but necessary, things to remove these people, you’ll not only hurt your team’s performance and profitability, but also their morale. Keeping under-performing or difficult employees inadvertently shows your good employees that there aren’t repercussions. Your indecision and lack of action often drives strong employees to leave because they’re tired of carrying the extra weight of under-performers and they’re frustrated by the lack of consequences.

But firing people, while a necessary part of business, never is comfortable.That said, there are ways to make it easier on yourself and even the employee. This starts with reframing firing—or simply looking at it from the employee’s perspective.

Put yourself in their shoes

The first thing to get really clear about is that no one wants to spend 40 hours a week in a job they know they’re not doing well or a culture that they don’t quite fit into.

Consider this: You don’t generally hire people you don’t like or don’t see some potential in. If you’ve moved from even tempered optimism to the point that you’re ready to terminate them, they either are underperforming, don’t work well with their coworkers, or perhaps are difficult to work with in general.

It’s highly unlikely that you’re the only one who has noticed. Imagine going to a job for 40 hours a week and thinking the whole time, “I’m never quite getting this right. I don’t fit in. I can’t wait until I can leave.” Most people recognize this and quit, but some don’t. And that’s when you need to make the business decision to let them go because they’re unable to perform to the required expectations.

At the end of the day, although it’s hard to have to make these decisions for people who are unable to make them for themselves, you’re creating the opportunity for them to find a role in which they’ll probably be happier.

Recognize what happened

Keep in mind that an employee’s inability to do the job can sometimes be the result of your or the company’s actions. For example, you may have an employee who has been a stellar member of the team for a long time, but then your company begins to expand and evolve, and suddenly he or she just can’t keep up.

Some employees just can’t grow with your company the way you need them to. Recognize that they deserve to have a job that they’re good at and that they enjoy doing—and that your company deserves to have someone who can meet the expectations and needs your business has now.

Sometimes, the decline occurs because you promoted the employee out of their comfort zone. You assumed that because they were good at lower-level roles they would continue to thrive on higher rungs of the same ladder—but that’s not always the case. Perhaps their strengths lie in working with customers, but not in setting strategy and managing a team.

If you really like this person and they’re a good worker, have an honest discussion with them. Indicate that you recognize this new role is not playing to their strengths—and ask them what they think. Many times they’ll tell you they hate it. That frank dialogue can solve a lot of your problems.

When you’re thinking about firing someone, it’s easy to fixate on the awkwardness and potential fallout. But you’ll find when you expand your view and consider both sides, it becomes easier to have the difficult conversations and make challenging decisions. 

Firing will always be uncomfortable, but flip the script and recognize that nobody deserves to have a job they’re not good at, nobody wants to go to a job they’re failing at, and everyone deserves a job they enjoy and can excel at. If they can’t see that, you need to help them get to that job they can enjoy and excel at. It’s possible they’ll eventually thank you for it.  

Rikka Brandon is a nationally recognized building industry recruiting and hiring expert, and best-selling author. She helps building industry business owners and leaders solve their recruiting and retention challenges with strategy, best practices, and access to experts. Whether or not you’re looking for in-house training and coaching for your team or an expert to provide consulting, you can learn more at www.BuildingGurus.com/Informa.