COUNSELING, TERMINATIONS & MORAL DILEMMAS

Multiple true stories included.

THIS IS NOT H.R. ADVICE–this is for your consideration and possible enjoyment. In this article I will share my personal management style in dealing with the toughest parts of any Managers job. Discipline that’s effective prevents terminations, but if you have to terminate it’s a huge decision and 90% of the time should be done judiciously and occasionally pointblank.

I enjoyed my retail career and worked with all kinds of people. I didn’t care who you were, what your DNA was, what your personal lifestyle is, politics were, as long as you performed at a reasonable level based on your talents and abilities. I have employed every kind of person–thousands coast to coast.
All men are born equal in their chances, but not all men are born equal in talents, and when somebody slides through a day or month not working based on their talents, abilities and tenure–that’s totally unacceptable in my view. I also you expected employees to follow the rules “without fail no exceptions” and meld into the Team around you. I had great disdain for those who saw themselves as better than the Team or beyond the rules, or if that person paraded around as if they had what I called “a case of the uniques”.

When it comes to discipline and terms, you better be sure that the correction is based on what I call “the more than fair” policy. Have you been more than fair in your assessment before moving forward? Assuming you have, here are some examples from my career (some of the names have been changed to protect those involved).

Story #1) A highly tenured Manager (we’ll call him Robert) was ineffective, not involved in his department and had become nothing more than a title on a card. Those of you who know me well, understand that I have no problem articulating clearly and there’s no shortage of dialogue. Robert was given multiple opportunities and I had several direct discussions with him about expectations. He was not responding. Being a highly tenured Manager, I truly suffered about letting him go–when you fire an employee you fire their family too. So I decided to have the final conversation before moving to a termination, and I wanted to be crystal clear with him, leaving NO doubt about the consequences if he didn’t respond in a positive way. The final conversation went this way: Robert, I am going to ask you to do 3 basic things. If you do those 3 things, you’ll be here when I’m gone–I won’t be here in 2 years. If you don’t do these 3 things, I’m going to fire you. I won’t talk to you, or come into your department for 2 weeks–but on the 15th day when I walk in and check those 3 things, if all 3 aren’t complete, I’ll let you go. Do you understand? He said yes. 15 days later he was terminated. Why? It wasn’t the 3 things so much as he was not managing properly based on his abilities, knowledge, tenure and he making no effort to respond. He was given multiple opportunities and had clear direction on expectations. NO surprises for him, which should never happen to a highly tenured employee.

Story #2) The 3 night rule: I have a rule–anyone who costs me 3 nights of sleep in a row gets fired. In Charlotte it was called “bloody Mondays” and was nicknamed accordingly by a good friend of mine named Doug Winchester (God rest his Soul). If discipline, conversations and direction didn’t soak, it was not going to turn out well. Any employee that cost me 3 nights in a row (usually Friday, Saturday and Sunday) it was over on Monday. I would walk into work and Doug would ask, how was your weekend Bruce? If I answered not so good, he would say uh oh, it’s gonna be a bloody Monday… He was right. It’s a rule I have lived by. Any Son of a Bitch that screws up your sleep habits that bad, causes you to stare at the ceiling fan at 3 a.m. for three nights–you fire that person!

Story #3) “Congratulations, you now have 100% of my personal attention..” This a line I have used many times and it puts any employee on notice that they are firmly on the radar screen at the top of the food chain. This is NOT a good place to be as an employee. Followed by “I’m all ears, tell me under what circumstances you need to be managed directly by me now?” After listening to the stuttering and fumbling, it was followed by my close: “I’ve heard you and here’s the result of it–your behavior and lack of performance has to change and it begins when you cross the threshold of my door–you don’t get the afternoon, a day, or a week to think about it. When you walk out of my office you need to fix your problem to my satisfaction on the next customer contact, or it’s over. Do you understand? Because, if you can’t grasp that, we can finish up your employment right now..

Story #4) This one was a moral dilemma and the final result is not what you will be expecting. I had conducted an internal audit and found that a high profile Manager who had 20+ years tenure (we’ll call him Barry) was stealing. The theft was very devious and highly sophisticated. I presented the details to the owner and together we agreed to term immediately. On the way down the steps to go do the deed, I was paged back up to the owners office. I went back up and the owner said “manage him and do anything that you want to short of a termination.” I knew what the dilemma was without asking, so I called the Manager into my office. I asked, Barry do you have your keys to the store? He said yes, and I said give me all your keys right now. His face went blank. He asked what’s going on–I said give me your keys. He pulled them out and removed the store keys. Then I picked up the phone and called accounting in front of him and told the Controller to remove ALL of Barry’s accounting privileges post haste. Barry was turning colors.. I hung up and said, Barry you now can only enter the building after it’s opened by another Manager and you cannot make ANY decision in your department without my consent daily–do you understand that? He said yes and started to cry.. Now get your ass out of my office and don’t ever tempt fate again–you better be a Saint moving forward if for no other reason than for your Sons sake. He walked out in tears and he was micromanaged for years. Why did a thief not get fired? Because, we as a company, had been paying for and providing transportation for Barry’s Son to go to Mayo Clinic for life saving experimental treatments which was still ongoing–thankfully he did live. The owner never asked me what I did or how it was handled. Also, Barry never asked why the actions were taken either, which illustrates that he knew EXACTLY why it happened. Of course I shut down his sophisticated operation which was a multi state fraud. Oh well, he was a smartass anyway and it was satisfying to quietly but effectively reduce him to a pawn.

Story #5) This story is presented to illustrate how NOT to fire someone. A guy I knew was an area Manager and a great recruiter, but struggled with tough situations. One day he called and asked if I would meet him at a certain location and help me term a guy? Sure, no problem. In the meeting the area manager (we’ll call him Martin) started his usual LONG diatribe which involved all 10 fingers–he would start with a Thumb, peel back each individual finger and talk at length per finger until he went through 9 fingers and finally on #10 he would say “it’s not working out and I think we need to separate”… BRAIN DAMAGE..

When you fire someone, make it quick and as painless as possible. There should be NO surprise unless it’s an egregious circumstance. When starting a meeting for a term, I would always start the meeting quickly this way. “This will not be a good meeting, I’m letting you go and I’ll give you my reasons.” Most HR departments do not like to give a reason, but I do. The meeting should be short, but honest, and not up for debate. It’s over. I have never surprised anyone with a term. It should have been highly telegraphed in multiple meetings why and how we got there. In my career I have actually received many apologies from people that I termed–I have even received letters of apology post facto. I’ve had a few terms go south, but it has always worked out in the final analysis.

One time a guy tore up my office threw a floor lamp across the office and screamed for 2-3 minutes then sat down and said F**, he then cried and said I’m sorry that I let you down..
I hope you can glean something from these moments in time and find something that helps you in what are the toughest parts of management: Counseling, discipline, terms and maybe even a moral dilemma along the way.

I wish the best to everyone and hope the year end is big for your company. Lastly–never layoff or fire anyone close to the holidays. It can wait.
Bruce Daugherty