Can I fire an unpopular worker?
Joanna wants to know the logistics of firing an employee. How should she handle this situation?
From W. Barry Nixon, SPHR Good Day, FSB! I am writing to comment on the 'Can I Fire An Unpopular Worker?' article that appeared in Ask FSB.
I was surprised that the responder identified the ADA as a primary issue when in reality a much more relevant issue is 'At Will Employment' which a majority of the States have laws on the books for. It prescribes that an employer can terminate an employee at will whenever they choose as long as they do not violate public policy or any existing laws. If indeed the employee is disrupting the performance of the department, contributing to low morale or causing other employees to transfer or resign then these are legitimate factors that are impacting the business. While I know we only get a 'snip it' of the entire situation if the person is 'pretty capable' has the supervisor thought about coaching and developing the employee before immediately going to termination or quickly accepting her resignation. The employee is reaching out for help which most likely means she is open to development. Given the challenges in hiring talent these days the company may want to recognize that in the long run "it might cheaper to keep her.'
From Chris, Miami, FL Wow that guy wanting to fire an unpopular worker is a jerk.
There need to be more laws protecting people even if they are unpopular. The
modern hostile workplace due to the economy is turning people on each other
and if youre not in the clique, youre out on the street. As long as you are
a hard worker this shouldn't be the case. The present work environment makes
likeability more important than hard work and that is causing a rotting from
within in alot of companies in Miami. Nepotism and racism within the
workplace is also rampant here. Sure they cannot legally fire them or being
a certain race but they can make their life a living hell and try to force
them to quit. All these things are reasons why there needs to be more
protection in place.
From Ed Krauss Please keep researching and writing on this subject…. this is important and valuable information.
From Sam Smith, Seattle WA Although not a bad person, having no evil intent toward anyone, I have been in a similar position as the employee in question. My boss, in all fairness, even suggested that I read 'How to Make Friends and Influence People'.
I saw a counselor, She told me nothing was wrong a little effort on my part couldn't help'
Ha. Now, as a senior citizen, and diagnosed with ADHD and social skill deficit Asperger syndrome, I feel so vindicated!
No wonder I was never able to make small talk or enjoy office friendships. I have never been comfortable around groups of people, or be part of group activities as part of work projects.
Sometimes, a person has disabilities not connected with intelligence or the ability to perform excellent work.
Sometimes, a lack of people skills is not related to lack of desire or lack of trying.
From Shiva, Boston, MA There clearly is a problem. Both the employee and the manager needs to mend their ways to address the issue on hand. Conflict management is one of the key responsibilities of any management fucntion and the manager cannot take the easy way out by firing an employee who does a good job but needs a little help in people skills. Encouraging open communication within the team and also keeping an eye on what each of the team member upto would get a better perspective of such issues. I believe there is enough frustration at work for someone to call and cry about it. It may be good for the employee to move at this situation for it looks like there is perception that she is hard to work with eventhough gets the job done very well (and shared by the manager as well – expressed by the undertones in the statements)
From Mary, Austin, TX The question here seems to be whether or not the manager has a legal right to fire her. The other stuff about whether it is right to fire her is beside the point. I would check the manual of operations or employee handbook if the company has one. If it has disloyalty clauses, then there may be basis to use that to fire her, especially if she has stated she has applied at other jobs already. I would not, however, deny her unemployment insurance, because if she contests it, usually the judge requires that you prove she left the company with malicious intent before she would be considered ineligible for it, which is fairly difficult unless you've taken notes on her and have witnesses to testify against her.
From Charlie K Smith, Lafayette, IN Kind of a sidebar to the ADA comment:
ADA doesn't cover only Mental Illness, but physical illnesses as well. I have Cystic Fibrosis and have had to deal with ADA in nearly every situation I was employed. They couldn't understand that when I had a lung infection, I physically could not breath easily. They then 'let me go' in their words.
It could have been easy law suits, but its just not worth it in the end. People need to open their eyes and realize not everyone has unlimited capabilities.
From K, Boulder, CO I don't think we have enough information about this situation. What exactly is this worker doing to make things harder for others at her workplace?
Also consider how necessary people skills are for her job. Does she type at a computer all day, or does she interact with customers? If she doesn't deal with customers much, people skills might not be so necessary as long as she can deal with co-workers on a day-to-day basis.
From Donna, Dickson City, PA You say she's pretty capable. That means she can do the job. Is it really necessary for her to have people skills? If she was abusing her position, i.e. coming in late, taking personal calls, making errors then that would be another story. Unless things change then she can't be fired.
From Bret Miller, Lake Charles, Louisiana Move to Louisiana! It's a "right-to-work" state. Employees don't have any rights. You can fire someone for very minimal reasons such as bad attitude.
From J, Miami, FL I myself can completely relate to the "unpopular worker". Needless to say, I dread being fired pretty much every day.
I'm seldom late for work, I bust my a** when I'm at work (unlike others at the company I work for) and I have a very strong work ethic (unlike others at the company I work for). I'm not blowing my own trumpet, but I very rarely screw up on the job and I have a knack for "getting it done".
Despite all that, I am surrounded by people at work who have little or no work ethic. People who turn up whenever they feel like it (often at 11am), people who chat endlessly, spend hours on cell phone personal calls and goof around as if it's high school, or a scene from "Saved By The Bell". Add to that, the goofers have formed a nice little clique, leaving me feeling even more isolated and unwelcome.
When the constant talking and yapping got to the point where I could no longer stand it, I tried to talk to my supervisor, thinking he'd at least take some sort of action. At first I thought he was on my side, then he just happened to tell one of the women I was complaining about that *I* was the one who complained about her (great management skills, huh?).
Needless to say, that lady hasn't said a word to me since and I am constantly aware of her angry stares, and the fact that it appears that she's told everyone in the office that I'm basically scum.
At this present point in time, I am doing everything I can to find another job, but I have not been successful thus far. I will keep trying, of course, because I literally cannot bear it at work.
So the point is, instead of just yelling "fire her", at least try to understand how it feels to be an "outsider" at work.
And the guy who mentioned Miami – you're spot on there — this is the city of the clique, where it's who you know, not what you know. You can be the worst employee on the planet, but as long as you're popular, that seems to be all that matters — I NEED TO FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO LIVE!
It's not nice to dread going into work every day, hating your co-workers so badly that you can literally feel steam bellowing out of your ears because of the anger and frustration.
From mary, blairsville, pa I found it interesting that the employee was upset enough to call the manager at home. I guess there are two sides to every story. I agree with those who feel the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt here. One of the toughest jobs a manager will have it to deal with varying personalities, but deal with it you must.
From Keith, Raleigh, NC Joanna, you seem to me to be very passive aggressive. Why did you let this situation continue for so long? Are you sure that YOU and the other employees are not the problem? It sounds to me like you sat on your hands and didn't address the situation until it got to be a problem. This sounds like a case of employing bullying to me where your employees feel that she is easy to abuse so they do it. I see this all the time in my work, especially when someone is more capable than others.
Instead of taking the easy way out and showing her the door, you should try to find out what is going on. Is it really a case where she may have some mental illness? Wouldn't you feel better about yourself trying to help her than just shoving her back into the job market, leaving someone else to clean up a mess that you might have had a hand in making worse? As fanciful as this might seem, have you considered how firing her or pushing her out might affect your business? Do you want her to harass you or cause problems for your business?
No one likes to be bullied or made to feel unwelcome. Perhaps she is horrible to work with, but people are perceptive when others dislike them. It must be hard to go to work each day in an environment that is not friendly and tolerant. Just because you don't like someone doesn't mean that you can work with them professionally. Sounds like your employees (and maybe even you) are childish and insensitive.
Good luck. I hope that you choose the high road and at least TRY to make the situation more tolerable. Sit down with this woman and find out what is going on. Maybe it isn't worth your trouble, but you owe it to yourself — morally, ethically and professionaly – to sort this mess out.
From Murali, Trivandrum, Kerala, India In my personnel opinion an open discussion with her and other staffs should be conducted to found out the problem from the grass root level. we cannot ask her to go out because others doesn't like her. she should be given proper training in people handling and if she doesn't improve then other options should be worked out.
From Yadgyu, Harkeyville, TX Fire her.
A person who causes a hostile workplace shoule never be tolerated. As long as there is some documentation, evidence, or corroborating stories, the employer has nothing to worry about.
Most people will not sue over being let go. Even if a person does try to sue, the hard evidence against that person will destroy that person's lawsuit. No one is entitled to a job.
From Steven, Los Angeles, CA There is an old adage my father told me years ago.
"Tom" is complaining one day about how he is mistreated at work.
"The boss doesn't like me! He gives me unfair assignments. Kim doesn't like me! She never collates my copies like she does for everyone else. Jose doesn't like me! He never delievers the mail to my desk like he does for everyone else. They're all so mean! Jack doesn't like me! He is never as fast to come fix my computer as he is for everyone else. Sue doesn't like me! She always gets my order wrong when she makes a lunch run."
Here's the moral of the story:
If Tom has a problem with the boss, with Kim, with Jose, with Jack, and with Susan, who or what is most likely the real problem?
From Reality Check! All you poeple who are trying to turn this into the manager's fault are waaaaay off base. You see things completely differently if you were actually managers.
Let me tell you about my own sister. She isn't the most emotionally stable person in the world. She's difficult to get along with and she causes friction in every office she works in. Give her a month and she'll be having issues with 30 people. She's good at her job, but impossible to deal with. So if she isn't canned for her bad attitude, she will eventually leave of her own accord. Either way, she wreaks havoc before she leaves.
Managers have a responsibility to ALL employees to foster a safe, efficient and pleasant work environment. Not taking care of a trouble-maker is to eschew that responisbility. Work is tressful enough as it is, without having to tip–toe around difficult people, who refuse to change. I'd bet that if this woman were in your office, you'd be singing a completely different tune and would probably have a party after she departs.
From Manager When a worker has a problem with one or two co-workers, the issue is easy to resolve. However, if the worker is disliked by everyone, there is always a reason and it likes with the worker. I find it difficult to believe that this employee is "pretty capable." If you cannot work well with others, it's impossible to be effective. Hence, she cannot be very capable. Calling her boss at 9 pm on Friday night to whine indicates extremely poor judgement as well as impulse control issues.
An employee like this cana destroy workplace morale and severely hammer productivity. Obviously, it is best to chaulk this up to the fact that she is not a good fit for your organization and cut her. It a right-to-work state, this is pretty straight-forward. However, in any state, the woman opened the door with her resume threat. I would call her in for a one last change talk. I would make it clear that her behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. She must learn to work effectively with others. I'd give her 30 days to turn things around. I would offer her the option of resiging her post and receiving a severence package. If she declines this and her performance does not improve in 30 days, she will be terminated for cause. In all probability, she will except the voluntary termination. After all, every "against her."her
From Chris, Miami, FL Wow that guy wanting to fire an unpopular worker is a jerk.
There need to be more laws protecting people even if they are unpopular. The modern hostile workplace due to the economy is turning people on each other and if youre not in the clique, youre out on the street. As long as you are a hard worker this shouldn't be the case. The present work environment makes like-ability more important than hard work and that is causing a rotting from within in alot of companies in Miami. Nepotism and racism within the workplace is also rampant here. Sure they cannot legally fire them or being a certain race but they can make their life a living hell and try to force them to quit. All these things are reasons why there needs to be more protection in place.
From L.S.Klienschmidt The boss sounds pretty insensitve and unwilling to work on having a better team. Maybe the manager's boss should consider firing the boss.
If this woman does her work well, perhaps the rest of the office is jealous or maybe they are just not nice people to begin with,i.e., in cliques or much older or younger, etc. Anyone who would call their boss crying needs some "managing skills" from the boss, not ultimatums. An office meeting to discuss these issues would be a good start, but never legal inquiries about whether the boss can fire her.
If I were this gal, I'd have "typed up" my resume a long while ago and already left for much greener pastures.
From Matt, Kalamazoo, MI Glad to see a few others here are raising the point that maybe it would be better to try and help this person. Obviously, it was perceived that this person would bring value to company when she was hired. It would be good to try to retain that value and help out the employee at the same time.
From Gene, Philadelphia, PA This is your fault as a manager, not her fault as an employee. If she is difficult…why. Most people are difficult because they believe that their boss is not straight with them. YOU ARE THE MANAGER….act like it and manage. Make the situation work….this is what you are paid for.
From A. Stetson, Sacramento, CA How about instead of firing this person actually leading and listening to her.
Sometimes all it takes is to give an employee a little appreciation for the work that they do to turn a situation around.
Here is an example from How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie that illustrates my point.
A supervisor had a janitor that was doing a very poor job. The other employees would jeer him and litter the hallways to show him what a poor job he was doing. It was so bad that production was being lost in the shop.
The supervisor noticed that once and a while the employee would do a really good job. The supervisor made it a point to praise the employee in front of other employees. Each day the janitor did a little better job and pretty soon he was doing a much better job. Now he does an excellent job and other employees give him appreciation and recognition.
Sit down with this employee and actively listen to her concerns. Offer her kind advice and if she takes that advice and applies it then praise he publicly for it.
You may be able to avoid all the logistics around firing her and greatly improve workplace dynamics in general.
From L. Bachmeier Just from a human perspective, I wish employers would try to make the person a better employee by providing constructive feedback regarding what they need to improve upon and giving him or her specific benchmarks to meet by a specific period of time, rather than avoiding the discomfort by jumping right to termination. I believe this approach would more often than not be more cost effective for the company. It also fosters more positive employee relations. If employees see other employees being treated callously, employee relations will suffer.
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you should fire yourself, for being a mean person to people who may be not your level social status