The Necessary Evil Of Firing An Employee
Terminations are a necessary evil, but they are still very hard -- on managers.
I have argued a case in front of a judge even when I knew the facts were far from being on our side. I formerly worked in politics and regularly interacted with governors, senators, and members of Congress. Once I even managed a faint “Hey” to P Diddy as we walked into the same concert. But never in my life have I been more nervous or unsure of myself as when I told a member of my team we were terminating her employment.
It’s not that the termination wasn’t justified. She recently got into an all-out screaming match with one of her colleagues to the point where I needed to pull her into my office to prevent the fight from turning physical and to end the disruption she was causing to the entire department.
Once in my office, she continued to berate me, the other colleague, and pretty much anyone else she could think of. After she ran out of energy, I dismissed her for the day so I could consult with HR on my options and potential next steps with the employee.
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Needless to say, I was a bit surprised to find security outside my office door — they had been called by other members of my team who feared for my safety. While my immediate reaction was one of surprise that my team did not think I could defend myself, it immediately drove home the severity of the situation.
With workplace violence a sad reality, my team not only feared for my safety, but their own.
Yet despite the overwhelming evidence I had to support the termination, it is still to date one of most difficult things I have done in my professional life.
As a manager, you get to know your team on a level usually reserved for close family members or friends. You are one of the first to know if there is a death in their family and they need to miss work. They clue you in to potential medical scares as their rationale for the unusually high number of doctors’ appointments. And you generally know their financial health based on the level of satisfaction they have with their salary and/or how often they request a raise.
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As for my now former team member, I knew about her family, her faith, her favorite meal to cook for parties, and countless other personal facts culled together from working side by side, eight hours a day, for months on end.
When the time came for me to have her termination conversation, I was not thinking about her recent fight and office disruption, but rather of all the personal and pleasant memories of her I had built up.
And whether it was a last-ditch effort on her part to prevent the inevitable or a genuine feeling of betrayal, you can bet she attempted to remind me of every happy memory she could as I informed her of her termination.
I was told by HR who served as witness to the conversation that I had done a great job and future firings would get easier. But these platitudes did little to remove the pit from my stomach or lump in my throat.
As far as I perceived it, I had just ruined her life, brought financial uncertainty to her home, and become a target of revenge by her or her impacted family. I doubt if future firings will ever get any easier even if I am “great” at them — which isn’t exactly something I ever aspired to be.
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The benefits? Other than my pants fitting better due to a loss of appetite and sleep in the days leading up to and after her termination, I wholeheartedly believe it was the right call for my team and their future success. There is simply no place for employees to feel unsafe in the workplace. Since her termination, the team is tangibly happier and more productive.
Terminations are a necessary evil and arguably a way of life in any business setting. But as a manager, you are entrusted with making the tough calls as to when they need to be made, and you are expected to put the needs of your team before your own appetite and sleep. And at least next time someone makes another soulless lawyer joke around me, I can recall how I felt during this experience and know I still have a soul somewhere hanging around inside of me.
Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at stephenwilliamsjd@gmail.com.
