Would You Give This Employee the Axe?

(www.bizchicksrule.com) — What do you do when you have an employee who hits the mark about 20% of the time and is chock full of drama? That’s the question Esther Schindler seeks to answer in her August 14 article in Digital CAD, Would You Fire This Person?

People on the team like her, and she’s supportive of what the company and department is doing. She can just be a bit wearing.

But recently, her work has taken a turn for the worse. The bright spots are rarer. She’s never been good about meeting deadlines, but the last miss was pretty bad. And now she said something that pissed off the client (or the Big Boss) which makes you look ineffective. You’re pretty steamed about the incident. Is it time to say farewell to Claire?

What do you do?

1. Fire her. She’s not contributing to the team, and is dragging away your energy.
2. Have a heart-to-heart conversation with her about her declining standards. Even though you know she’ll cry, and even though you’ve had similar conversations and they didn’t work for long.
3. Sigh, and continue on with life. Not everyone who works for you can be the best.
4. Call the HR department. Let them deal with her.
5. Something else. What?

Schindler received 55 responses, 28 from men and 25 from women, and summarized the suggestions in a lengthy (and fascinating) discussion of the situation. Interestingly, men and women gave largely the same suggestions, and there was a good mix of folks who wanted to fire Claire and keep her on board. The most valuable part of the article, for me, was the explanations respondents gave to back up their decision, which often included recommended dialogue.

Now, imagine you’re Claire’s boss. What would YOU do? Leave a comment.

Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King

(image: SXC.hu)

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