Firing employees is one of the most difficult things a mission-driven leader has to do. Yet it is important that it be done in a timely and humane manner. Unfortunately, most leaders struggle with this, and their organizations and missions suffer as a result.
I found a recent guest opinion article in the New York Times titled “Layoffs by Email Are Cruel and Unnecessary” to be a good guide about some things to avoid, and why. It was oriented towards large, commercial organizations (mainly big tech companies), but many of the recommendations are universal.
I thought two of the most important suggestions were to not be too worried about employee sabotage—by, for example, cutting off the dismissed colleague’s email access minutes before they are notified—and to conduct the process as you would want it done if the roles were reversed.
The article contains three succinct tips that are consistent with the “role reversal” thought exercise, which the author also describes as respecting the dignity of the person being fired. They are: “Look people in the eye. Answer questions. If someone is upset, show some sympathy.” This is not rocket science, but you’d be amazed how many supervisors don’t practice these commonsense guidelines.
Here are two more tips from me: Don’t use this as an opportunity to tell a story about when you were fired or suffered a career setback (unless the person clearly asks for that). Secondly, in a mission-driven organization, it may be wise to acknowledge that the person you are letting go may have made a sacrifice in terms of salary and benefits to come to work for your organization, which could make the loss of their job even more painful for them.
In my recent books Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind (especially on pages 150-152, where I tell the story of one of the first times I fired someone and how it worked out much better than I expected) and in When in Doubt, Ask for More (on page 173), I addressed the issues of whether, when, and how to fire a nonprofit employee. Let me conclude this post by summarizing the key take-aways that draw from these sections of my books:
1. Get it over with! If you are even thinking of firing someone, it is probably long past time to do so. If your legal and human resources teams tell you to slow down, take their advice on board but don’t be a slave to it. There is some wisdom in their likely desire for due process and reducing legal liability, but there are limits to its usefulness as well. Don’t let them drag out the process too much! Also, think twice before you include a third party, such as a human resources professional, in the meeting with you. You gain a “witness,” but you will probably lose some of the intimacy and humanity in the encounter.
2. Avoid the trap of blaming yourself for an employee’s struggles. In reality, your role is probably marginal. Having a strong “responsibility gene” is a plus in general, but in this case, it is probably misplaced. Your employee is the one who is mainly responsible if they are failing to deliver. (Of course, if there are systemic issues that have put the struggling employee in a no-win situation, then those should be addressed, and it may justify giving them another chance to prove themselves.)
3. Resist the temptation to move a well-liked under-performer from one job to the next as an alternative to letting them go, unless you have strong evidence that they will do better in the new role. (Trust me on this: Most likely, they won’t.) Especially in nonprofits where humanistic values are held in high regard, the stories of struggling employees being moved to up to five positions (and failing to succeed in any of them) are too numerous to even begin to count!
4. Don’t cut the fired employee off immediately unless you have to based either on company policy or on the unique aspects (and risks) of a particular case. Don’t be cutthroat and assume the person will sabotage your organization if you don’t immediately restrict access to their email and files, and to your facility. Let them go in a dignified way, and most likely they will reciprocate in how they treat you and your organization. As I noted in Changing the World, I once had an employee who I had fired a week or two earlier participate in a staff retreat on their last day, and he contributed in positive ways to the session (and years later helped us secure a large grant).
5. If a person wants or has to emote when they get the news of their being fired, just let them do so. In fact, welcome it. Don’t try to fix it and if they apologize, tell them there is no need to do so. Crying in the workplace is not unprofessional; it is human. Have a box of tissues handy.
6. Give as much severance as possible, especially if the employee did not have any ethical lapses. Don’t worry about the precedent you are setting. In fact, if you are reasonably generous and word gets out, people will most likely feel reassured that you take care of people even when you are forcing them to exit—which suggests you will do so at other times as well. And it helps ensure that the departing employee speaks well of you and your organization, or at least doesn’t badmouth you (which they otherwise will do, regardless of what they may have committed to in writing—trust me on this as well).
7. If your organization suffers a financial setback, it may provide you with an opportunity to part ways with underperforming employees in a way that maintains their dignity while at the same time helps you cut costs and improve overall efficiency.
8. While some employees may question your decision to fire someone, especially if they are well-liked, many more will admire your decisiveness, since colleagues have probably been having to cover for the underperforming employee and resent having had to do so.
I have heard many supervisors and leaders say they have lost sleep for days if not weeks as they approached a meeting where they needed to fire someone. It is not a pleasant task. But it is an important one that can and should be done as professionally and humanely as possible. As a leader, it is your responsibility to do make this one of your strengths over time.
I have practiced what I preached above for many years, even though some of it goes against the conventional wisdom and the advice of many lawyers and human resources professionals. I have no regrets and I have never had these approaches backfire on me.