When it’s time to let an employee go

One individual’s poor performance or bad behaviour is affecting your entire team or work culture.You’ve seen the signs for a while but still haven’t made a move. 

Breaking up is hard to do

For many leaders, ending a work relationship – just like a personal relationship – is often seen as a failure. 

It’s my fault for hiring the wrong person. It’s my fault for not helping them to improve their performance or ability to keep pace with our team. 

But you know what? Sometimes it’s just not a good fit. 

So here we are, 18 months or seven years into a job. It’s not working. What if we didn’t look at it as a failure because by ending the relationship, you’re putting both parties in a position for future success? 

When an employee is struggling in a role, he or she knows it. This can provide an opportunity to consider a career change or find a work culture that better fits them.

And by making a move, you’re creating an opportunity for your team to reach its full potential because you can find the right person for the role.

No pain, no gain 

Firing somebody is a difficult task. You don’t want to hurt the person and worry about their financial well-being. But the reality is you need to make a change, which may ultimately lead to new or better opportunities for the former employee.

Recently I spoke with a colleague who lost their job unexpectedly after a long career with one company. The firing circumstances weren’t great. But neither was the work environment at the company in recent years. After the initial shock, they realized they were set free from an environment that didn’t align with their values and a situation where they were not set up to succeed. So, sure, it’s scary to make a career shift, but in the long run, being let go can be a blessing.

On the flip side, there’s a hesitancy for leaders to let an employee go because of the anticipated headache of recruiting, hiring and training a new team member – especially in the ultra-competitive market for talent these days. 

So, we may wrongly settle for the ‘Devil You Know’ mentality. This employee isn’t great, but we’ve learned to live with it and compensate. 

But in reality, this inaction is doing a disservice to the rest of your team because you’re keeping someone in the wrong role. 

When employees behave or perform poorly, and you choose to ignore it, you are saying, “that’s good enough.” And you’re not just saying it to your team; you are saying it to the whole organization because everybody’s watching.

Also remember that when you’ve got an underperforming employee, you likely won’t get many team members voluntarily bringing it to your attention. People tend to speak up afterwards. Poor performance is apparent to everyone – even if you’re not hearing about it directly. 

At what cost? 

We didn’t do an excellent job of tracking and recording the employee’s performance management, so if we fire them, it will be without cause, and we’ll have to pay severance. I’ve heard this a lot from companies. 

Sure, a severance payment will impact the bottom line, but have you measured the cost of that unproductive employee? As the manager, how much time are you spending putting out fires, refereeing, fielding calls and complaints from others about this employee? How about the extra time you’ve spent coaching them, and it’s just not making enough difference? 

In the end, the severance cost might be a bargain compared to the long-term costs of keeping a mediocre staff member.

If you’re struggling with the decision about the fate of an employee, I suggest talking to someone outside your organization for an unbiased opinion. Likely though, you already know in your gut what the decision should be.

Of course, before deciding to let someone go, make sure you go through your organization’s protocols, which may involve your HR department or legal team.