Thanks for adding to Rick's thoughts on firing people, Ben. I agree that
this is one of the more stressful parts of a person's supervisory or
managerial experience. It's much more satisfying to bury one's head in
the sand and hope a problem will go away than it is to face it and deal
with it--and probably all of us have shared this experience.
There is an ethic involved, though, of resolving differences (including
dismissing someone) rather than passing malcontented people on to another
department. This was a favorite trick among some commanders in the
military--sending maladjusted or contentious people on to another command
with favorable comments to ease the transition. My job for many years
consisted of disallowing this practice without appropriate paper trails
and/or disciplinary and administrative sanctions. As a supervisor and
manager, I also had the unhappy chore of dismissing people--and, in some
cases, of referring them for courts-martial.
I have also seen this trick of passing on the criminal or dysfunctional
person to another organization -- and when the reference check is made,
there is no mention made of the person's inappropriate past for the former
employer. This is one of the shoddier, more unethical sides of
organizations' personnel practices (consider the harm of passing health
professionals off as responsible and reliable when the truth is that they
are drug addicts who stole from their previous employer--and that's the
kind of thing I'm thinking about).
There are no easy answers or decisions when dealing with peoples
lives--and when considering the cost of potential litigation (there's some
law, I'm sure, that stipulates that the most contentious of people are the
ones most likely to find an attorney to file a law suit for wrongful
termination or releasing employment information that may be considered
derogatory).
It also takes a great deal of energy, perserverance and time to run
through the disciplinary process, and afford the misbehaving person the
opportunity to change her or his behavior. It is gratifying to see that
there are responsible people in positions of authority and responsibility
who don't shirk this job. It is very necessary to a healthy organization
to cull the rotten fruit and withered vines from the main stem.
-- "Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together." -Carl ZwanzigThresholds--developing critical skills for living organizations Richard C. "Doc" Holloway Olympia, WA Please visit our new website, still at <http://www.thresholds.com/> <mailto:learnshops@thresholds.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>