Have you ever reviewed the dismissal of an employee in your mind and said, "Gosh, I wish I had not fired that person. I should have given him/her more time."
Well, that thought has never occurred to me. Instead, this is the way it usually goes: "Dang it, why did I wait so long?" Or something stronger.
The facts are that by the time you, the boss, figures it out, everyone else in the company knows and may be laughing at the way this employee gets away with stuff. You, my friend, are NOT the first to know.
After some time has passed, it is almost certain that more incidents or information will be revealed that indicate that the problem was deeper, more frequent and more serious than you thought when you fired the employee.
MY FRIEND LANCELOT
Well, his name is not Lancelot, but close, and that isn't the point of the story. L and his wife had come up through the trades and they ran a nice little business in the construction industry. Made a nice living, had a good crew and used their certification as a minority-owned business judiciously. They did good work and things were going well.
Until Mrs. L got cancer. It lingered for a long time, consumed L's time and energy and eventually Mrs. L's life. As she got weaker, she wasn't able to do the work at the company and they hired a friend from church, Marie, to help out. Marie became a permanent employee and things went along for a couple of years.
One day, a long-time supplier and friend saw L at a ground breaking on one of their mutual projects and said, "L, my man, I need to get paid on that invoice for this job." L was surprised and said he thought he had already paid it. No, better check.
Upon checking on things, it seems that Marie was not only Mrs. L's close friend from church, she was a gambler, had a big-time gambling problem and had embezzled almost $400,000 from this little company over a couple of years. It almost broke the company and, although she went to prison, the money was GONE!
Marie had intercepted all the calls, juggled the checks to keep the creditors at bay and didn't count on the chance meeting at an event. She would alter the checks that L signed so that she was the payee.
Lancelot survived, but he should have paid more attention, had more controls...and he certainly didn't fire her too soon.
STEALING TIME
This was, of course, an extreme case. More likely, it involves petty theft (one case I know involved buying supplies from a friend for a "premium" and splitting the proceeds) but MOST LIKELY, employee malfeasance involves stealing of another kind, stealing time. The employee is paid to do a job and just isn't doing it.
These kinds of situations are more difficult to ferret out and more difficult to bring to conclusion. Did I provide the correct instructions? Did I train the employee properly? Should there be a time that an employee should be able to work on "outside" jobs?
THE SECOND RULE
As well as "Never Too Early," the second rule is "Things are not very clear." You will always need to make these kinds of decisions with incomplete information, and for some supervisors, that kind of action is anathema. To make things worse, you will make mistakes.
I remember making one of those mistakes, and it almost cost me my job. The employee in question was shoved down my throat by my boss which started things off on a bad foot not improved by the actions of my boss and the employee to persist in going around me. The fact was, however, that she was not doing her job and even after extensive counseling, really didn't think she had to do the job because her benefactor would protect her.
Although I had documented the employee's ineffectiveness and insubordination and had it verified by others, although I had discussed the situation with my boss, I took action out of anger and that was the terrible mistake. As an excuse, I was fighting the flu and had a high fever at the time, but as you know...that's no excuse and there just aren't any.
DO IT RIGHT
You have enough information, it is well documented, you have gathered the approval of everyone else who needs to know. Now, just go ahead and perform your job.
Not getting rid of an employee who others know is not performing can have terrible consequences on the morale of the group and your reputation. They probably already know that you are not a hero, but they should not be encouraged to think of you as a milquetoast.
When you do your job, don't argue with the terminated employee. You are well past that. Good luck.
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