I’m so uncomfortable when I have to fire someone.Do you have any suggestions of phrases or techniques I can use to “soften the blow”?
Here’s what you had to say:
- “Softening the blow” can seem like a thoughtful and considerate act, but it’s actually quite dangerous from a legal standpoint, as we found out the hard way. I terminated a poor-performing employee but told her that the reason was that “things weren’t going well” and that the company was cutting back. She sued and said we fired her because of her race. Unfortunately, there had been some racial teasing at one point, and her performance appraisals all said “satisfactory,” which, at our company, means really bad, but there they were. And the company wasn’t really cutting back. We ended up settling for a large amount. — Z.P.
- We train our managers in terminations as part of our routine manager training. Then, when they have to fire someone, we basically give them a script and go over it with them before the termination meeting. It’s too easy for things to go wrong when a manager improvises, even if the person is doing so in order to try to be nice. — F.C.
- We go through a formal procedure before any termination that involves a lengthy checklist. By the time a manager has gone through the checklist, he or she is confident about the basis for the termination. We’ve found that verifiable facts, while they don’t help “soften the blow” per se, help people understand (and therefore accept) why the termination is happening. — J.A.
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