The good, the bad, and the ugly: pt. 2

[muckefuck]

The Bad: My first termination

I guess I finally popped my cherry as a manager today: I made my first fire.

As such things go, it was rather painless. No lengthy probation, no attempts at mediation, no slow accumulation of incriminating details. I only spoke to him once, at the interview. Even then, there were one or two warning flags that made me think, This one is going to be difficult. But I was still recovering my senses and not as critical or as cautious as I should've been. (At least, that's my excuse.) And I was pleased with myself at the thought of having my hiring done before many departments have even started.

A week ago, two days after the hire, I spoke to his former supervisor, who told me point blank, "I wouldn't hire him." (That was startling. The strongest thing Monshu ever says, even if he's fired someone, is, "So-and-so worked for me from such-and-such a date to such-and-such a date.") Too late. So I spoke to Personnel, to see if it was possible to unhire him. Nope. So I contacted him and told him I needed to speak to him before the end of the week. No response. I kept trying and didn't hear anything until Monday. I told him he'd better come in the next day or else. When he didn't, I mailed my documentation of the events to Personnel and they told me that if I had no word by the end of the day, they would terminate him.

I don't really feel bad and I don't really feel relieved. This time last week, I felt like the biggest idiot in creation. My boss made it worse by bragging at the departmental meeting that we had completed our student hires. After I'd told the student to come in and started rehearsing my talk with him--blah blah blah his expections blah blah blah my expectations blah blah blah do this again and you're out--I was anxious. Fortunately, I was able to channel it into my work (note the drop in entries for that period), which left me tired enough at the end of the day that I didn't lose much sleep.

I'm not even concerned about finding a replacement yet. My other new hire is working out and my returning student is still a marvel. Right now, I just have an empty feeling, like the past week was squandered. When it actually came to mailing out the termination notice this morning, I felt squeamish. Isn't it assholish not to even try to call him? (Although I'd never once succeeded in getting him on the phone.) How would I be able to face him if he stopped by or I ran into him? I so dreaded a reply that I found work to do elsewhere in the building so I wouldn't check my mail. But the more I remembered my misgivings about his character, my fury at being misled (yes, he did quit the previous position--but if he hadn't he'd've been fired), my weariness at being ready every day for a confrontation that never came, the less sympathy I had for him. After all, this was his second chance, and he blew it. He'll never work here again. Tough shit. Yeah, he's only a student, but an important lesson for anyone to learn is that, sooner or later, playing loose with your commitments will catch up with you.

I just hope it never happens to me.

Comments

[lifeandstuff.livejournal.com]

You have my sympathies here. Letting people go is never an easy thing for most people. Not even when they are total jerks and deserve it on just about every level one can think of. I've had to do my share of it for all sorts of reasons (my group in my previous company was 40 people at one time, so substantially more people over 10 years were in my group). I've hated letting people go pretty much every time and (truth be told) probably exhibit many to most of the anxieties you mention when doing it to this day. So, it isn't like I "get used to it". I'm even pretty good normally at the "it's not personal it's business" mode of thinking, which most people really aren't, but that still kind of breaks down when it comes to this.

The one positive thing I will say is that (1) keeping a bad employee around is typically bad for everyone else in your group in all sorts of ways from moral to workload. So, even though it's hard, it is truly for the betterment of your people (and that isn't a cliche, it really is) and (2) the confrontation fears that you (and I) tend to have due to the imagined confrontation are almost always much, much worse than anything that actually happens in reality. I have a couple of horror stories, but basically what you can imagine is almost much worse than anything that actually happens in my experience. Actually, the last goes for just about any personal confrontation (with me at least, your mileage may vary).

[lifeandstuff.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, we ALL eventually hire a bad person. Hiring is very difficult at best and there is just no fool proof way to do it. You just play the percentages and hope for the best. So, don't feel bad about hiring a bad employee.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I was sort of over that part, finally. Then the bastard had to go and show up here today.

I was caught totally unprepared, of course, and in the middle of dealing with another new hire. It was painful to see him. He didn't seem to realise that he'd really been fired and put me on the spot by asking whether I'd found a replacement. Truth is, I haven't, but I couldn't rehire him if I wanted to, so I confessed I was still interviewing.

He said he'd been sick. I apologised that I hadn't know that. He said, "No, it's completely my fault." All in all, he was so contrite, it was tough to recognise the sly manipulator I was afraid I'd been saddled with. Still, I'm not going to second-guess myself: Even if he is just a disorganised flake, that's more hassle than I'm willing to put up with. You don't waltz after four days of complete silence and two days after your scheduled training session asking if your job is still around.

Still, I'd be a lot more comfortable if I actually had some interviews scheduled, but I'm not going to panic. The work-study office just called yesterday asking whether we had any positions still open.