Our resident corporate Agony Uncle, CEO Ken Cheng, tackles business challenges – so you don’t have to.
Dear Ken,
I need to fire one of my employees, but I know they are having a hard time at home. Do I hold off until it’s a better time for them?
EB, FinTech Marketing Director, Leeds.
Dear EB,
No.
This is something you’ll need to learn if you want to run a company: your employees are not people.
Yes, when they go home to their loved ones, you will experience fear, love, sadness, joy, and they will be people. When they are in your office, they are tools. Their human selves are unimportant to your bottom line.
If you switch on your Laptop and the hard drive is corrupted, what do you do? Do you cuddle it? Do you check if it’s having a poor mental health day? No, you throw it out of the window in a fit of rage.
Once a machine is broken, it’s no longer your problem. The same is true for staff.
I know it’s difficult. A machine won’t turn on the waterworks (not yet, just wait for my new product, CryAI), but a human will try to manipulate you into feeling guilt. Don’t fall for it.
I like to take a leaf out of the book, Of Mice and Men, particularly the scene where George takes Lennie out into the woods and mercy kills him. Do you see what I’m getting at?
That’s right, drive your employees out into the woods. Make sure they are facing away from you – it makes it easier. Then, break the bad news. This is how I fire every single one of my employees.
Not only will this be better for him in the long run, it will be very important for your personal character development. After all, the most important thing in the firing process is how it affects the CEO.
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