Dismissed

I’ve had to dismiss several employees for cause over the years. A couple of times the issue was as simple as job abandonment; the employee simply quit showing up for work. In those cases I didn’t really dismiss the employee as much as they effectively dismissed themselves. Dismissal is fairly straightforward in job abandonment. The only issue is how many days of non-attendance and no communication to tolerate before proceeding with dismissal.

In the other cases there were job performance issues; a much tougher conundrum, especially in these days of 10% unemployment. (The year is 2010 as of this writing) To dismiss an employee knowing that they might not easily find a job, and thereby lose their car, lose their home, and possibly end up homeless is especially disturbing. I comfort myself with the knowledge that I turned the other cheek many times, and every opportunity was given to turn the job performance around. The staff members were warned, counseled, retrained, and suspended before dismissal occurred. Human resources was consulted multiple times to be sure that we were giving the employee every opportunity to turn the job performance around.

I hope that my colleagues fully realize the efforts I made to save the jobs of these folks. I hope that they were wondering what took me so long to take action. Dismissal was justified months ago, but feelings of compassion, tolerance, and mercy kept me from doing what had to be done.

I cannot think of one of these dismissals where the staff member was incapable of performing the job. They could have done the job. The problem is that they chose not to do the job. They refused to adjust their behavior. They did not comply with the demands of the job, of which there were few. And so, in these cases they, too, abandoned their jobs in a more subtle fashion.

Still, in spite of all the logical gymnastics and justifications, it was emotionally disturbing. I was left with feelings of frustration and anger. Why did they force me into this position? Why did they make me do what I had to do? They had to do their jobs, and did not. I had to do my job, and I did it.

I continue to wrack my brain. I was a responsible party in these events and had an active hand in them. Was there something that I could have done that I did not do? Was there something I could have said or done that would have turned these folks around from their self-destructive paths? Did I do my full duty?

My rational self knows I did right, but it is accompanied by a lot of self-doubt, mental anguish, and sleepless nights. A more callous boss would do a better job of tolerating the self-torment following the dismissal of a staff member, but I don’t think that makes them a better boss.

Spring of 2010