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Have you ever had an employee you "thought about firing" work out long term?

3,060 Views | 19 Replies | Last: 1 mo ago by Shoefly!
Four Seasons Landscaping
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8:13p, 9/23/24
Yesterday, I let go of another person I kept on too long after talking myself out of not letting them go several times.

I'm starting to think that if the thought of firing somebody ever comes into my mind, the answer is yes: get rid of them.

Have you ever had somebody you thought about firing turn it around?
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dallasiteinsa02
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8:47p, 9/23/24
I have employees in the wrong roles but never just one plainly bad that turned it around.
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AGROAg88
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9:05p, 9/23/24
Never. Trust your gut, then over-document.
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ktownag08
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10:46p, 9/23/24
AG
Someone on my leadership team just had it happen with one of their directs.

This guy is a unicorn in that it seems one day he just became motivated to not suck at life and became a good worker. No change in role, etc. 100% the exception so trust your gut
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aggiebrad16
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In reply to Four Seasons Landscaping • 5:32a, 9/24/24
AG
I've always been a fan of dance with the one you're dancing with and lead them, have those tough conversations, and give them opportunities to Improve if they respond well to constructive criticism…

With that being said it doesn't work more often than it does work.

We did have a ton of success with a young man turning his mentality/work ethic around recently. So much so that it got the attention of a bigger competitor and they poached him.

Wow maybe don't listen to me.
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CapAmr05
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9:53a, 9/24/24
AG
I had an employee a few years back who I inherited through merging of different departments; our area picked up about 5-10 new people who were all doing similar work to what our operations team was doing.

That employee's role shifted during the change so their job was purely client facing, but also required orchestration of the backend setup as well (based on client intent). The new employee was also the same job grade within the company as me, which makes it more peer management. The job is high stress and fast paced, and the particular client this employee got was one of the tougher ones in terms of high volume, insane expectations and bad book keeping (on their end).

The new employee was good at the client facing, but struggled with the operations side initially so we paired them with a high functioning legacy employee. The two worked mostly well together and about 6 months into the transition, which is more than enough time to get acclimated, the new employee's performance started to dip. Started missing calls, dropping the ball on emails and requirements with the client and the high performer was sweating bullets behind the scene trying to keep the account afloat heading into our busy season.

Everything came to a head when the employee got onto a call (45 minutes late after being gone all day) with the team and client. The employee had completely ignored the client communications for the last 3+ days, projects that should've been started were nowhere to be found and the employee was audibly slurring words trying to backpedal excuses. Of course all of this 'conveniently' happened while I was out of office, so I was getting text messages from my staff manager.

I wanted to fire the employee on the spot, and started lining up HR and had the staff manager start documenting it all incase things got ugly.

The employee came to us the next day and asked to go on leave, stating they were having issues with alcohol and personal issues in their relationship that was clearly affecting their work. Employee was gone for about 2 months on leave, I fully expected them to not return.

To my surprise, they did. After getting their personal stuff in order they went right back into the job and did amazing work without missing a beat.

I'm really glad we didn't fire them, and I learned a lot about giving folks a second shot. I left that department ~4 years ago, I still check in on that employee every now and again, they're doing great still.
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aggiebrad16
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In reply to CapAmr05 • 9:56a, 9/24/24
AG
Great lesson. Business is hard. If it was easy everyone would do it. In these cases you're not going to get it right every time.
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Tumble Weed
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10:22a, 9/24/24
27 years in Corporate America. I can think of two instances.

Employee #1.
Inherited an employee from another team. He was on a loser team and was burnt out. Had been kicked around by corporate. Terrible attitude.

I treated him well and never asked him to work overtime. Gave him some space for creativity and gently corrected mistakes. He appreciated how I treated him and started performing at a very high level.

Employee #2.
Friend of mine not under my supervision, but at the same company. Software development position. Gets fired for not being good at public speaking. They wanted developers that could also train clients. WTF?

As it turns out, he was a lights-out code slinger and was hired by Google and has done really well.

Point is, don't try to turn a Thoroughbred racehorse into a Clydesdale.
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500,000ags
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11:40a, 9/24/24
AG
I inherited an employee that was very tough to work with. Confrontational, entitled, insubordinate, hypocritical, etc. It took me and my boss, during 1:1 settings, almost 8 months to finally get this person in line with our team's expectations and culture. We did it because they really understood the company's data and products, and that was super helpful at the time. I don't manage the team any more, but the new manager, who also witnessed some of the early struggles says they are working and communicating well. So it can happen with a ton of patience, but I personally don't think the juice was worth the squeeze looking back.
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Ribeye-Rare
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In reply to Four Seasons Landscaping • 8:24p, 9/24/24
AG
Four Seasons Landscaping said:
Yesterday, I let go of another person I kept on too long after talking myself out of not letting them go several times.
Show me an employer who hasn't kept on a guy too long and I'll show you an employer who probably hasn't hired and worked many people.

The only time it worked out for me is when I had a guy who was having some pretty serious problems at home, drove unreliable transportation, etc, etc... He'd had a streak of tardiness that was causing problems on the shop floor and I was getting flack from others for keeping him on.

But, in spite of his problems, he had a great attitude, an uncanny ability to pick up new skills if taught clearly, and worked his ass off when he was present. While I told him I couldn't help him with his family problems, I did help him get reliable transportation and worked closely with him to teach him skills that no one else (including his co-workers) would.

His family problems finally subsided and he turned into one of my best guys. He was with me for 15 years.

But, he's the only one I can remember.

Mea culpa -- I made some bad hires over the years. Some days I felt like I wasn't an employer as much as I was a proprietor of an adult daycare center.
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gggmann
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9:24p, 9/24/24
AG
Tech company director w/ ~350 employees in my org (engineers, technicians, and managers). Off the top of my head I can't think of any successful turn around stories other than the one-off case where we changed an employee's job role and scope, but in that instance they were successful previously, and we ended up moving them back into that role.

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Ag97
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7:25a, 9/25/24
AG
Best advice given to me years ago was hire slow, fire fast. Don't be in a rush to make a hire and just throw bodies at a position till you find a fit. On the other hand, if its obvious in that first 30 to 90 days that the new hire isn't a fit or is already exhibiting issues, pull the Bandaid off immediately. It's a lot easier to move on from underperformers or people with issues in that first 90 day probationary period.
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Jack Boyett
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2:36p, 9/25/24
AG
I started as a new plant manager at a small chemical plant. About a week later, we get a new hire operator that had been offered the job prior to my arrival. A few days after that, HR tells me his backgound check came back with a bunch of red flags (drug convictions, assault, prison time). Why are just now finding this out? Well, background checks can take several weeks they say. The guy has only been here a few days, and the director over me and HR are both suggesting I fire the guy.

I thought that was a pretty dewsh move for a guy that moved his life to a new town to get fired for something we already should have known. Now that I know HR a little better, I'm have no doubt that they procrastinated on running the background check until he was already at the plant working. I tell him what his situation is and that I'm going to give him a chance but he's basically on his final warning.

The guy turns out to be extremely hard working and intelligent, testing through the levels to Operator III in about 18 months. He's a little rough around the edges and abrasive sometimes but has been an excellent hire.

PS - He got into drugs as a backup dancer on tour with Bieber. Has the videos to prove it.
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FrioAg 00
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4:50p, 9/25/24
AG
I can think of a few examples where I had a leader under me who wanted to let someone go (or in some cases large parts of a team) - but then when I got rid of the bad leader the same employee(s) turned out to be a awesome.

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Waterski02
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9:09p, 9/25/24
AG
Can't say I've had a wanted to fire turn out well, but have turned around 2 strained work relationships into success. As a people leader trust your gut, as changing people isn't the job. Creating culture that is rewarding allows people to change themselves. As said, Hire Slow, Fire fast, until corporate HR won't let you. Then make their life suck and document, document, document.
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FriendlyAg
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6:19a, 9/26/24
This thread is spot on. It almost never actually works out but if you manage people long enough you'll give people second, third, or fourth chances because they find a way to do just enough and you'd like for them to figure it out, but it's definitely the exception for them to figure it out.

If you have the money and time to wait on someone, if it does work out, usually the employee is invaluable and they will likely be very loyal to you if they realize they should have been fired multiple times. If you don't have the time and money, and your gut says to fire them, you should.

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Tecolote
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In reply to Ag97 • 4:21p, 9/26/24
AG
Ag97 said:
Best advice given to me years ago was hire slow, fire fast. Don't be in a rush to make a hire and just throw bodies at a position till you find a fit. On the other hand, if its obvious in that first 30 to 90 days that the new hire isn't a fit or is already exhibiting issues, pull the Bandaid off immediately. It's a lot easier to move on from underperformers or people with issues in that first 90 day probationary period.
This is absolutely the case. I've hired everyone from graduate degrees (MS, PhD) down to no high school diploma manual labor. Learned a few cases the hard way of my going "give them time" - never worked out. If the light isn't burning after 90 days and they still don't seem to be knowing what to do, or just as importantly give you even a little bit of attitude, get them out the door fast, fast, fast.
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bangobango
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8:42p, 9/26/24
AG
I don't have a ton of experience with it, but in the experience I do have the people I wanted to fire after a few weeks are the people I still wanted to fire after six months.

So far, never had to fire one. They've always got the message and found other employment before I dropped the hammer.
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Brother Shamus
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In reply to Tecolote • 10:15p, 9/26/24
Tecolote said:
Ag97 said:
Best advice given to me years ago was hire slow, fire fast. Don't be in a rush to make a hire and just throw bodies at a position till you find a fit. On the other hand, if its obvious in that first 30 to 90 days that the new hire isn't a fit or is already exhibiting issues, pull the Bandaid off immediately. It's a lot easier to move on from underperformers or people with issues in that first 90 day probationary period.
This is absolutely the case. I've hired everyone from graduate degrees (MS, PhD) down to no high school diploma manual labor. Learned a few cases the hard way of my going "give them time" - never worked out. If the light isn't burning after 90 days and they still don't seem to be knowing what to do, or just as importantly give you even a little bit of attitude, get them out the door fast, fast, fast.


Yup I've learned this the hard way too. God it was hard to finally let him go. Dude tried hard too. It's also such a gem to find folks that fit like a glove too.
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Shoefly!
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In reply to Jack Boyett • 3:07a, 9/27/24
AG
Jack Boyett said:
I started as a new plant manager at a small chemical plant. About a week later, we get a new hire operator that had been offered the job prior to my arrival. A few days after that, HR tells me his backgound check came back with a bunch of red flags (drug convictions, assault, prison time). Why are just now finding this out? Well, background checks can take several weeks they say. The guy has only been here a few days, and the director over me and HR are both suggesting I fire the guy.

I thought that was a pretty dewsh move for a guy that moved his life to a new town to get fired for something we already should have known. Now that I know HR a little better, I'm have no doubt that they procrastinated on running the background check until he was already at the plant working. I tell him what his situation is and that I'm going to give him a chance but he's basically on his final warning.

The guy turns out to be extremely hard working and intelligent, testing through the levels to Operator III in about 18 months. He's a little rough around the edges and abrasive sometimes but has been an excellent hire.

PS - He got into drugs as a backup dancer on tour with Bieber. Has the videos to prove it.

Ahahaha, wow I didn't see that last sentence coming.
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