How To Fire an Employee Without Making a Costly Mistake
As a founder with a growing business, you may have the opportunity to build and manage a team. With that opportunity comes a number of challenges, including the chance that you may need to fire an employee when things don’t work out exactly like you hoped. No matter the terms on which an employee is being terminated, this is undoubtedly one of - if not the most - uncomfortable interactions you can have as an entrepreneur and it’s important to handle the situation delicately, for the employee’s sake as well as your own.
There’s a lot of advice out there about how to fire an employee. They all tell you some version of the same: Express sympathy but stay firm, allow the employee to vent, answer all questions and provide as much context as you can, never terminate an employee on Friday or Monday, the list goes on and on.
The amount of advice is endless but the root of it all comes down to how you the entrepreneur should act.
You’re expected to provide a safe space for this termination to take place. You’re expected to be the picture of compassion and somberness. You’re expected to be educated on the facts of the situation so that you’re prepared to answer any questions they may have. That’s a lot of pressure to carry on your shoulders, not to mention that this will arguably be as stressful a confrontation for you as it will be for the employee.
Studies have shown that there’s a lot of emotional baggage that comes with firing an employee. Guilt and stress are likely the main emotions wreaking havoc on your mental health. Fear can be another factor, especially when you’re worried about how the employee will react. But with all of these emotions warring for attention, how are you expected to present a calm and collected front when the time comes? How do you expect to remember all the details and say all the right things while experiencing that level of stress?
We understand the emotional weight that entrepreneurs carry, so we set out to offer tools to help founders find calm personally in the midst of high-stress situations - like terminating an employee.
By using our performance and mental health grader app, you can gain a better understanding of your current mindstate to see if you’re ready to fire an employee today or not. Plus, the app provides guidance for when you’re most emotionally prepared to make hard decisions and have difficult conversations. Say you’ve been experiencing high levels of anxiety for the last several days. The app may suggest that you hold off on having that hard discussion until you can get back to calm again through physical exercise, meditation or journaling - all tools that are offered in the Founders First app.
If you’ve experienced both sides of the situation, you know that it can be as uncomfortable to fire an employee as it is to be the one getting fired. It’s important to consider both parties’ emotions during the conversation, and as the leader, be sure to take care of yourself before showing up for such a tough confrontation. Saying the wrong thing or taking the wrong action during the process of firing an employee can have lasting consequences that you can avoid by making sure you’re personally ready before you start.
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