Firing People: What You Do Versus How You Do It
Bob Sutton
Organizational psychologist, Stanford faculty, New York Times bestselling author, and speaker. Eight books including Good Boss, Bad Boss, The No Asshole Rule, and Scaling Up Excellence. Latest:The Friction Project.
There sure is a lot of angry talk about firing people these days. I try to stay away from the raging emotion, ideology, and irrationality of politics. But I feel compelled to comment on one claim that I keep encountering—one sometimes stated openly and sometimes implied — about firing practices in the private sector that is distorted, misguided, and often downright wrong.
Here’s the alleged “lesson” that bugs me: The practice we see in Washington of firing people in sudden, impersonal, and often humiliating ways is sometimes portrayed as a reflection of how things are done and OUGHT to be done in “real” businesses. I beg to differ. Yes, there are often good reasons that people ought to be removed from their jobs. Yet (at least outside of politics) both the research evidence and wisdom from skilled leaders suggests that firing people in humane and caring ways is best for the organization, the people doing the firing, and those who are sent packing.
In The Asshole Survival Guide, I quote veteran senior executive and venture capitalist Michael Dearing on this point. Michael has fired quite a few people over the years. It was part of his job as a senior executive at companies including Filene’s Basement in Boston and eBay in Silicon Valley, and as co-founder and CEO of a chain of shoe stores in Los Angeles that went out of business. Now, as an early stage venture capitalist at Harrison Metal, he sometimes has to remove CEOs or pull funding from the start ups he invests in for business reasons. BUT, as Michael puts it, “there is a difference between what you do, and how you do it.” Michael’s goal is to fire people in the most dignified and civilized way, to treat the person with respect, to thank them for their efforts and accomplishments, and often, to help them find a new job that is well-suited to their talents. Michael treats them with dignity both because he is a caring person and it is in his best interests as a hardcore capitalist.
Michael’s experience dovetails with lessons the I learned early in my academic career, when my research focused on the processes of organizational decline and death. I studied how humane leaders implemented tough decisions such as firing, layoffs, and closures. I discuss such lessons in Good Boss, Bad Boss and in this McKinsey interview and video. In short, the four hallmarks of leaders who do firings or layoffs well are:
- They give affected people as much prediction about how the process will unfold --which protects them from unpleasant surprises, helps free them from being in a constant state of fear, and allows them to plan their lives.
- They create understanding by explaining why the decision was made to people who are sent packing and to their surviving colleagues.
- They help fired people exercise control over how and when they leave. They might, for example, give people a say over the wording of the announcement to their colleagues or the press. Or they might allow them to decide whether to leave immediately or stay around for a few days. Their goal is to do little things that enable people to feel less helpless or ashamed about losing their jobs.
- Above all, leaders express compassion to the person who is being fired and when they discuss the person with others.
Rather than bad-mouthing people they fire, smart bosses usually do the opposite. Venture capitalist and former CEO Ben Horowitz wrote a lovely piece on how to do layoffs that captures what a humane firing process looks like – prediction, understanding, and control are evident throughout. This paragraph explains what compassionate leaders do during layoffs:
"Be present. Be visible. Be engaging. People want to see you. They want to see whether or not you care. The people who you laid off will want to know if they still have a relationship with you and the company. Talk to people. Help them carry their things to their car. Let them know that you appreciate their efforts."
Ben is talking about layoffs done to cut costs; a humane compassionate process may take different forms when a single person is fired for poor performance or unsavory behavior. But treating people with as much dignity and respect as possible, while doing the dirty work that must be done, remains the guiding principle.
There are at least five rational reasons why treating people with dignity is a good for your organization and for you.
1. Ripple effects
Treating fired people with respect rather than disdain dampens the fears of employees who remain. Employees know that, down the road, they may be sent packing too, and often think, or even say, when a colleague is canned “I wonder if I am next” or “But for the grace of god go I.” When they see that colleagues are treated with dignity in the process, it amplifies their psychological safety and confidence in you as a reasonable and sane leader. And the resulting dampening of their fear, anger, and anxiety helps them concentrate on doing their jobs and to feel good about going the extra mile for you and the organization—and makes them less likely to start looking for another job.
2. Replacements
If you are firing a person that you need to replace, by treating them with dignity, you are less likely to scare away strong candidates for the position – especially internal candidates who see your civilized firing style first hand. But if you treat fired people like dirt, word will spread (including to external candidates), and they may well decide against taking a job that may end in ugly insults and humiliation.
3. Candidate pool
More generally, if your organization develops a reputation for cruelty and vindictiveness in it’s firing process, word will spread (by word of mouth, social media, and especially at sites where employees provide anonymous evaluations of employers such as Glassdoor), and will drive away strong candidates for all positions.
4. Revenge and litigation
By treating the people that you fire with dignity in the process, they are less likely to become angry and vindictive former employees who sue your company (and you) and bad mouth you to others. Much as I have seen with Michael Dearing and other compassionate leaders, the people you fire with dignity may even thank you, remain loyal to you, and say good things about you and your organization.
5. Your day may come
Finally, if you have belittled, bad-mouthed, and otherwise disrespected the people that you fire, you ought to worry about what will happen when the tables are turned—when the day comes that you get fired. Colleagues who have watched your nasty ways over the years may not be able to resist giving you a taste of your own medicine. But if you have treated others well, they are likely to return the favor in kind, and help you preserve your sanity and dignity in the process.
Sure, there are instances when instant firings make sense. An abrupt firing might be wise if an employee commits such an awful or unethical act that you want to send the message that some behaviors will not be tolerated. But beware of using moral outrage as an excuse for your rash, stupid, and mean-spirited actions.
As Georgetown University's Christine Porath suggests, you are especially prone to treat people like dirt if you wield power over them, feel rushed, or are exhausted. If any or all of these pressures are at play, beware that an incompetent, lazy, or mean-spirited employee is especially likely to unleash your inner jerk.
As Dr. Jerome Groopman put it, sometimes the best advice is "Don't just do something, stand there." Slow down and imagine that it is a few days later-- and you are knee-deep in a shitshow that you’ve created with your impulsive, insulting, and humiliating actions. Sometimes imaging an ugly future can spare you the pain of having to live in it.
P.S. A slightly different version of this piece first appeared in my newsletter.
I am a Stanford Professor who studies and writes about leadership, organizational change, and navigating organizational life. Check out my new "All Things Bob Sutton" site, which includes a place to sign up for a free monthly newsletter, videos, links to my writings, and other goodies. Follow me on Twitter@work_matters, and see my other posts on LinkedIn. My most recent book (with Huggy Rao) is Scaling Up Excellence. My next book, The Asshole Survival Guide: How To Deal With People Who Treat You Like Dirt, will be published in Fall of 2017.
Loveandpeace.
7 年25372: Path to Lasting Peace Abstract Maybe many a time you looked at clock and realized passing time as normal or according to Einstein or Heisenberg theory have a deeper view about time and place acting. I was thinking about this great acting as you and always foul I’m closed and prisoned by this acting and as I researched about fundamental science I found a different and deeper view about affections of this acting. If I guess true you are thinking about coherency of peace and place and time. Before answer, I want ask a question. What acting can affect in putting out a lasting peace? There are different theories that I believe discussing about them just waste your time. I think peace means creating a certain sphere for all creatures. Where of humankind is one of the most affective and destructive kind of creations. Lasting peace appears when everybody do what benefits itself even it’s obverse even it’s surroundings. Maybe you understood the answer, maybe still thinking. By the way I recommend you to read main paper, because it is simple abstracted and can’t be more abstracted, because maybe lose some points. Key Words Time – Space – Peace – Lasting peace – Adam Smith – John Forbes Nash Sometimes I wish I had this insight too many years ago and this rule is understood by people and even is trained. In my opinion math and physic are one of the biggest and comprehensive languages of creation that facts could be analyzed and explained by them. The rule that I would like to talk about is the very huge rule that governs on a part we are captured in (space-time) same as other rules they affect our life if you would see it like me certainly no more war you had. I asked myself too many times what insights should I have to evaluate the problems more accurately, since for recognizing we all need the measure to be able to judge and make a decision. As you know we live in a big 3 dimensional space. (Length, width, height) due to the impact of this factor the main components are ended to these three and in this space-time just one exact motion takes place that the component of each set is composed of three general categories otherwise our understanding of the subject is incomplete since completion of other group is the evidence of the truth of what I have understood. For example: Out generality is composed of body, spirit and psyche, and according to experts this is classified as following: Physical, physiological and psychological and from the perspective of psychologist all our actions depend on Conscious mind, unconscious mind and self-conscious and the foundation of each family consist of woman, man, child. Social classes: high, middle, low Three primary colors: green, blue, red. Tens: past, present, future. Zoroastrian ethics: good thought, good words, good deeds. Principal of classification of electricity: in execution: DC-AC, single phase, three phases Static electricity: in three phases electrode if one phase didn’t work they are deactivated very soon Mathematical foundation: numbers, operators, relations Physic: quantum mechanics, classic mechanics, barrier between classical and quantum world This question maybe is raised that what is the relation between space-time and our communications factor? According to type of structure of this place, this great acting affects every things even our relationships and as I said before we have to consider three objects to inspect each kind of human acting in this part of creation. Human – his surrounding - the relation between human and his surrounding Since our generality of our being is made of our communications when the best results come out of the relation that person thinks about himself and also about the person of interest and even the surroundings (it is not necessary to have a human being as a person of interest, which is why I emphasize to what I understood) To better understand I suggest having a tour in history. Too many years ago Adam Smith said when the best result is achieved in a relationship person do that to its advantage and so long this belief has form ed the basis for political and cultural relations. In the fifties or sixties AD professor John Nash said when the best result is achieved in a relationship the person do that to its advantages and his group advantages and is recognized in 1995. But I believe the person must do that is beneficial for him and his surrounding, and a part of our surrounding includes in our environment. According to what was mentioned I would like to evaluate these two processes (Smith and John theory) related to human behavior with their own time to explain the other part of effects of creation factors. When Mr. Smith released his theory the result was nothing just I or being selfish and in its large scale is the dictator that the first and second wars are the results of this insight. Let me add that human believes every-duration is affected on the event apparent during its time and after that. And if you look deeply you can see all effects of fundamental creation factors in these events sharply. For example the emergence of dictatorship can be justified by the impact of factors such as versatility, compatible and evolution. Because the great man like Buddha believed what we are is the conclusion of what we were. When John Nash said the best results come when the person do that has advantages for him and his group (me and you), the society is progressed to us from me and you but there was some kind of doubt in his insight therefor when they cooperated within a group they learned more to work in a group . I would like to explain more because I believe the human, himself, his surrounding, his person of interest, his surrounding or it would better to say himself, his group, his person of interest because if I had said himself and his group of person of interest maybe a big problem would happen and there was a probability of fighting. For example, there was probably sacrifice and the gradual destruction for the team. As nowadays we can see it. But when I say himself, his person of interest his surrounding it is near to peace and wisdom since his person of interest could be a membership of his group and the structure of person who cares about himself and his group and even his surrounding is more complete than the person who is treated based on other’s theory. Adam Smith said: himself (1) John Nash said: himself and his group (1) (2) I believe: himself, his person of interest, his surrounding If you look accurately you will see just in the third theory there is a rotational motion and if you look more deeply and pay attention to the electrons movement around the atom core you can see they intersect as a triangular. And if you review the geometry structure of the pyramids is made of four triangles and just because of this special structure any food does not spoil in it. And if you fill the triangular container with water the metals will not disturbed in it. And if you pay attention to the place factor you find out the reason of completion of each principal consist of three parts. Fortunately we live in an era the people are learning how to live in the third theory. The important thing is that nations are developing toward globalization and wanting the world without borderlines will be possible in the frame of third theory. It must be mentioned that the groups that are developing to the globalization their legal structure and more important than it their economic system is based on John Nash’s theory and probably this paradox in social behavior and executive rules will be troublesome. In my opinion if in economic theories the goods value is adjusted by the supply, demand and require then the probability of corruption and rent will be least. Fortunately because of evolution and other factor, the people have found out their own way, sooner or later the world will reach to that place, as a great man said no reach any hasty but the only way is going. Hope to live peacefully in the borderless and without war world. References: ? Grammar of Farsi , Arabic , English and German Languages ? The big idea collected: 6 Revolutionary idea that cha nge the world By: Strathern, Paul (1940) About special and common relativity and quantum mechanic and newton rules in simple statement ? How to heal with color By : Andrews, ted ? Zoroaster's Avesta About Zoroaster's debt (well word, well deed, well thought) ? Buddhist religion About metempsychosis philosophy and Buddha words ? An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations (1776) By: Adam Smith About wealth distribution by production where as personal profits in a suitable organization can cause profitable social results. But in theory of moral sentiments (1759) he reasons that to earn profitable social results it is necessary to sympathize. So some bodies (like: Joseph Schumpeter) objects his Theory. ? Game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations By: John Forbes Nash, Jr. Some parts of this theory is about kind of conversation in personal or group discussions so during the discussion conversation repeats by different items by both parties as a game and this repetition goes on to a balance ? My Battle By: Hitler, Adolf ? Die ersten und die letzten By: Galland, Adolf ? Die Jagflieger im zweith weltkrieg. By: Daroff, Anatoly Those Three last books approves manifestation of cumulative ideas and actings
Retired
7 年It's even more humiliating when you know you are going to be fired and tell your boss he is setting you up. One month later I was let go after coming off a 3 week disability.
Paralegal IV Civil Litigation
7 年The firing employer is on stage for the world to see, not just remaining employees, partners, or associates. Some seem to enjoy the shock and reactions when an employee under their control is terminated with no warning . Dignity and compassion should be the attributes of any employer holding the power of destroying the reputation and livelihood of another person. How would they want to be treated in a similar circumstance?
Mobility enthusiast (rail, bike, combined-transport), lean thinker, opera and camellia lover
7 年Great write - may leaders and managers read it also and take the learning to their hearts.
Leasing Manager / CSR at Signature Flight Support
7 年Cowardly