How to Fire Someone

Firing is a very tough thing to do and there is no perfect way. But there are a few important things to remember. Here's a video that talks about some of these tips to make it go as smoothly as it can. Good luck!

Video Transcript:

All right, so you're concerned about firing somebody. That can be tough. Usually when you want to get rid of somebody, and it sound terrible, but sometimes it can be the right answer. There are three different reasons why. One, their performance was bad. They're not doing the right thing. Two, there's been some kind of incident or accident or event where you have to let them go. Or three, you're downsizing. Time to let people go. You're downsizing. I got it.

I'm going to cover all three in a second, but the thing to remember is there are actually three things that are the same no matter what. The first one is timing. The timing is, whenever you're going to let somebody go, make sure you do it at the end of the day, and that may sound cliché, but it's cliché for a reason. You don't want someone to be fired in the morning. People see it. People ask questions. They stay. It just becomes nasty and a mess for everybody.

If there's gonna be an emotional outbreak, it wouldn't have happened during the day. Do it the old 4:30, 5:00 rule or whatever's the end of their shift. That's the right way of doing it. It allows them, hopefully, to go home later, maybe not see their coworkers, and they can save some face too in case they feel bad about the firing.

The second thing is, empathy. Just because it is business for you doesn't mean it isn't personal for them. The person who you're letting go, it is personal for them. You should be human and have empathy. You want to have reasons to why you're doing what you're doing, obviously, but the same time, make sure you're saying things like, "I know this is tough. I'm sorry. This is hard. I get this is a problem for you." Say phrases and words that let them know you actually care. I hope you do care. You should care.

And if you do care, don't think the right answer is, "Well I'm a professional manager, so I should be Mr. Spock or Data. I should be that." Star Trekky reference, I know. So I should be that person. No. You should still be human and friendly. It matters. As nice as you can make it. And don't get me wrong. No matter what warm and fuzzy words you say, someone being fired's not gonna be happy. But you can make it less bad, so you should. Be human.

Next, future. Don't just go, "Goodbye. Good luck." That's the wrong answer. You want to talk to them about their future. You want to say things like, "Well, with what you've learned here, perhaps you can do X, Y, and Z." Or, "The last person who left here, they went on to do so and so." Or, "If you need a reference, I'm happy to give you one," assuming you are obviously, right? Assuming you are happy to give a reference. Say that. Do things. Tell them about their future. Give them some hope. Make it feel better.

Now, specifically. Performance management. So, someone's doing poorly and you've, I hope, over time, documented and tried to help them make them better in their job. And over time you realize whether it's a month, or three months, or a year, whatever's the appropriate period in your world, the person can't do the job well enough. They're not up to speed. You've got to let them go. Well the first thing to do is, when you sit them down, again, at 4:30, 5:00, end of the day, even the weekend's even better, then they don't have to come back to work the next day, even better, but at least at 5:00. You have the conversation, normal chatter back and forth, and explain the logical reasons why, and how you're disappointed it didn't work.

So logic and emotion together. Give them a reason why. They didn't make ... you know, they didn't make the cut, but on top of it, be human. Say, "I'm sorry it didn't work. I know we tried. I know you tried hard. Things didn't work around. I got it." Talk that way and explain from point A to point B to point C, and because of that, we have to let you go. "I'm sorry." Yes, you can say, "I'm sorry. Yes, I feel bad. I know it's difficult." Use whatever words you want to say.

And then of course, future. Look, I know you didn't work well here, but guess what? I'm sure if you go to this kind of job, you'll probably do better. The reality of it is, most people, and I hope you understand this as a manager, aren't bad employees. Most aren't. Some are. Vast majority aren't. People who don't perform well, usually they're in the wrong job or in the wrong company. Let them know that. You couldn't do well here, I got it. But I'm sure if you went to this kind of company or this kind of position, you probably could do better. Maybe give them a resource. "Hey, go to this website, this person." Help them in some way. Thank them for them coming in and working for you as long as they did. Send them off on their way.

Empathy, timing, keep them together, future. All right. What if it's an event? They ... you work at a bake shop and they ate all the cookie dough, right? Or they yelled at a customer you lost. They lost the customer. So one thing happened and they have to go. Here's the hard part for you as a manger. You're angry because you lost a client. They did something wrong. You're angry. I get that.

That's no excuse for you being a jerk. It doesn't matter. You're a manager. The same rules apply. Wait 'til the end of the day, have the conversation, have empathy, give them a future. Tell them what happened. Say, "Look, you yelled at a client, and we lost that client. That's X thousand revenue for the company. I can't have that." And say things like, "I'm sorry that happened. I wish it didn't. It's terrible. What option do I have? I get it. I know you feel bad about it. I do too, and I have to let you go." So human, same idea for the future.

Look, I hope in the future you learn to control that, if you're gonna be in customer service, you can't yell at clients. I hope your next employer you learn for that. In the future, I'm sure you can be fine in X, Y, and Z company, X, Y, Z position. Same things apply.

All right. Last, downsizing. They just have to go. This is one of the hardest ones to do. I've done it myself. I've done all of these myself, unfortunately. This one still bothers me, when you have to let somebody go and they've done nothing wrong. When you've got to let somebody go and just, you're reorganizing, company's not doing well, you've been ordered to fire them, any of those things and you feel bad. I got it. That's the worst one.

The same rules apply. End of the day, have empathy, let them know the logical reasons why. Are you reorganizing? Is their job no longer valid? Has technology put them out of a job? Are you just downsizing because the company's not making that much money? Whatever it is, explain the logic. At the same time, tell them how valuable they've been. Be emotional. Let them know you care. Let them know you're sorry if you are and you feel bad. That might sound selfish. It's not. It actually ... you connect to them better and they feel better about it. Look again, no one loves being fired. But again, in downsizing, you can make it better so you should.

Have empathy, tell them that. Something else. Give them a future ideal. Say, "Look, you know what? You might be able to go here or go there. If you need help, I'll be a reference for you. If you want me to look over your resume, please send it to me. I'm happy to help you out with that." Same idea, give them future. Don't think because you feel bad, that you have to erase your emotions. If you feel bad, it's okay. They may cry. You may cry. Who cares? Be human.

This, I hope. Remember those three things. That you have to have a future for them, timing matters, empathy is key. You keep those three things in mind, it'll be a whole lot easier to let somebody go.

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