The Right and Wrong Ways to Fire Someone.
8 Common Mistakes That You Need to Avoid.
When Cuyahoga County executives decided to complete a round of layoffs in 2011, they decided to experiment with a new way of letting people go. As their employees opened the front doors of their homes the next morning, they were greeted with a plainclothes sheriff’s detective to deliver their pink slips.
The company claims it was trying to find a method that was easiest on the people being laid off. But it seems obvious that they were really looking for the easiest path for their own management.
After questions came up regarding the idiocy of this decision, the HR Director doubled down, saying this method was “the smoothest way and most dignified way of doing layoffs.”
Personally, I don’t see anything dignified about receiving your lay-off notice in the same manner as an arrest warrant. And the only person who would consider this “smooth” is the manager that’s too much of a coward to have the necessary conversation.
But while this is may be an extreme, the process of firing people is rarely handled well. It’s often one of the most difficult jobs a manager will ever have to do. Even when it’s clearly the right business decision, you’re still telling someone that he no longer has a job and no longer has a means of supporting his…
