Letting people go is one of the hardest things a manager has to do. Some people say you are not a manager for real until you have to fire someone. Its never easy, even when the person deserves it. Its even worse when they don't.
Letting someone go is not something one must take lightly and it has to be carefully reasoned. Firing someone because he/she did something stupid is usually wrong. A successful company has to tolerate a certain amount of failure and encourage creative, thinking and incentives, even if the results sometimes disappoint. However, if someone is not a team player and repeatedly makes the same mistakes or simply refuses to work the company way, then he/she has to go. If anyone attempts against the company they are messing with the livelihoods of the families of all employees so they must go out. The good of the many and all that.
We are probably too lenient and sometimes wait until an employee and his actions are affecting morale before taking corrective measures. That may be due to our “Ay Bendito” culture, I have seen it in many companies.
What I hate the most is having to let a good employee go because there is no work for him In the past we have tried to retrofit employees to other roles in order to give them a chance instead of outright firing them We have had mixed results. Most people don't like new challenges and are set in their ways so they quit outright or we end up firing them anyway. We had a notable case where the guy thought he was entitled to a job and simply didn't do anything waiting to be moved to a different position. If I detect that there are no opportunities for an employee I will give him a heads up so he can better prepare and maybe help look for a different project.
Reasons to let someone go:
The obvious are when an employee takes action against the company, like setting up a competing business on company time, giving away trade secrets, stealing or destroying property.
When an employee has a level of incompetence and inability to perform that he is an obstacle to work. Normally these people would not pass interview stage but every once in a while someone fools us. Worse yet is someone who simply refuses to change or grow. For example, a great Netware CNE who refused to do Windows or Linux or does them badly.
With salespeople its more interesting. Some of the major partners have quotas and let salespeople go if they are not met. We try not to if the salesperson is trying. Its a hard economy now and a difficult business we are in, sometimes targets are not met. We have had the situation of salespeople who refuse to sell some of our lines or target some markets and we have to let them go because they just ain't producing.
The tricky part its when we deal with C grade people. They do just enough not to get fired but not one bit more. Those are the ones watching the clock, taking it easy. I personally don't care about people without passion or interests. Its unfortunate there are so many. These are the people we usually refer to as having government employee attitude. I know thats an unfair comment but them's the breaks. These people I pownce on them a lot and keep them on a short leash.
The actual removal of the employee its a fairly streamline process. No sense dragging an uncomfortable situation for all. One of the four senior managers (the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as they call us) brings the situation to the attention of the others, if no one can argue in favor of the person, we call the controller to give us a report of the person's salary and entitlements. We do a short, to the point memo and we call the employee. We try to have at least two manager in the conference room (the closest one to the door). We call up the employee. We explain the situation as briefly and directly as possible. Answer any questions, give him his papers and walk him to the door. Some cry, some insult us. Most know its coming and just nod.
Sometimes things get hostile. Some time ago an employee refused to do a project. I explained that the person in the position was expected to do that type of work and the System Engineer told me the job wasn't worthy of a person of his caliber. I suspended without pay for a week and rescheduled with the client. Guy came back, refused again to do the job and said I couldn't fire him because the company would go under without him. 45 minutes later, he was out.