I’ve been fired twice in my career, so I can personally attest to the fact that it’s not pleasant. The first time was kind of a relief – the ship was sinking and I had survived six rounds of layoffs. But it still stung.
The second time was not a surprise, but two years later I still found myself wondering how I could have served the company better.
Now that I’m running my own company, I have to think about both sides of growing a great team. Hiring, of course, is awesome to think about – it’s always inspiring to meet great people and welcome them to the team. But we’ve got to fire too. It doesn’t do anyone any good to maintain an illusion that there’s a match between a company and a team member when there really isn’t.
There are lots of things to consider before firing someone – state and federal laws, policy guidelines, as well as internal cultural norms and processes. I won’t detail those here because they vary so much from place to place.
But I will talk about the five qualities we value at Yesware and the reasons we fire people who don’t exhibit them. I’ll also address another reason why we might have to fire someone (although we do everything we can to avoid it)—and the one reason no one should be terminated.
Our five qualities are personality traits that we value above all else. If team members don’t exhibit them, they will be fired in the most respectful way possible.
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