How would you do it?

I’ve been on the other end of these things before but now I’ve got to make some cuts in the company and let 7 people go.

We are talking about well paid professionals most with kids, mortgages,,, and need the work. Being the axe man isn’t a joy but I guess it’s better than being axed.

Anyone have any experience on either end of this? If not the way the economy is going some of you just might, soon.

Be honest and respectful. That's all you can do. Unless they're idiots, they probably have had an inkling it's coming. Reassure them it has nothing to do with their job performance and you'd be happy to provide a referral (if, of course, they're worthy of one.)

Treat them like men and women.

Make it quick and easy and don't beat around the bush. If they were good workers, be sure to tell them that and make it clear that you'll write them references. If they were shitty workers, make it short and sweet.

*bigd and I posted at the same time*

Be straightforward, be professional but most important, be human and sincere.
Cut straight to the chase- don't ask how the kids are or how things have been going, prior to delivering the blow. After letting them know, don't be afraid to outline your reasons- as clearly as possible- for why they're being let go. "... business has been really bad man. We just have no choice. This isn't because of you or your performance, at all".

Have written letters of recommendation already prepared and tell the employee that if they need references of any kind, to have their employer call and talk to you personally, as you have nothing but great things to say.

In 1999, I worked at a small, local appliance store doing appliance delivery while I was going to school. Big Box came to town and seriously undercut them. They had to let one delivery man go, and I was the last hired. The owner let me go in the above fashion, and I always remembered how skillful he was. Getting fired is never easy, but your goal is to let the guy go without them feeling any direct animosity towards you or the company- this is a 50/50 shot, depending on how rational or reasonable the employee is. With some, there's nothing you can do, they will be angry. The best you can do is reach the other 50%.

Call all the people to a large conference room and have them line up. Tell them you have a new training technique by playing Simon Says. Tell them to put there right index finger to their nose. Then tell them to put there left hand on their left ear. Then say everyone that works in the () dept take a step forward.

Then quickly say, "Not so fast Bill, Rog, Stuey, and Shawn"

RR's idea is not bad, but I would make it more of a competition. Let the people compete for their job, possibly in a survival situation.

Now you're onto something.. turn it into a you tube reality show.

I generally like to avoid confrontation. Just stop payment on all their paychecks. The problems should sort itself out.


What, we're not still doing Office Space references?

That is soooooo early to mid 2008

GTFO

"what would you say, you DO here?"





oh, and do it on a friday...less chance of violent attacks past the weekend

I have fired some that I couldn't wait to axe and others that I didn't want to but had to be done.


If they need to go because they are substandard or just can't obey the rules.... I explain that "this may not be for you" and I "require things that you can't seem to do" and then suggest other lines of work.

It's a real crappy thing to cut someone because of money but I always put that blame on "the Man" or someone way higher up than me.

Fired by HollywoodAFD, thats when you know you've hit rock bottom.

Below..... rock bottom.


Kill yourself now

I've been let go twice.

First, during the tech wreck, the company closed the entire office. We all came in by 8AM, and no one could get in the building. There was a security guard saying that they'd let us in at 8. At 8AM, we got let in, but no one could log into ther computers. I knew it was coming for months and already had the resume out and looking, so I knew what it was right away. But everyone else was in total denial.

About 15 min after 8AM, the boss comes in and says: "I've just got a call from corporate, and we're all let go, even me. Go home, and by 10AM, FedEx will be delivering a packet that explains everything." We packed up our personal stuff under the eye of the security guy, then left.


Second time, the company decided to stop develiopment on an entire product line, and just keep a skeleton staff to support existing customers. One by one, employees got called into talk to one of the designated hatchetmen (well, mine was a woman). Thing is, they called everyone in alaphabetically. I'm an "s", so it was a LONG couple hours hearing a co-worker get a call, walk off, then come back with a couple boxes to pack up and leave. Based on what I was doing, I knew I was not going to be kept since my particular app was not installed by any of the exsiting customers.



Both suck. The impersonal nature of a group firing sucks. But, the slow wait for your turn in a one-on-one firing also sucks. Which is worse? Beats me? But the one where I got 16 weeks of severance was MUCH better than the one where I got 2 weeks.


In both cases, I knew it was coming, already had the resume out and was interviewing, and in both cases I got another job within a couple weeks.

You cant fire me because I quit!!

If you quit, no $20 million golden parachute for you!

Line up all the employees and say "whoever has a job here next week please step forward, not so fast Jim, Steve, Julio, Jamal..."

Oh, I hate people that do that. We had a manager that used to do that here when it came to having to explain any changes. Rather than treating people like adults and explaining why you have to do it, they just say "well, the boss says we have to change it". Grow a pair of balls

Treat them like human, don't beat around the bush, and just come out and say "we have to let you go". It's quite simple. If they ask why, which they all will, respond the company has been going through some tough times and we have to reduce our staff. Unfortunately you are one of them. Offer to give them a good reference (for the good ones). And for the guys you are glad to get rid of, just remember that you probably won't see them again in about 2 minutes, so don't really worry too much about them. But get to the point and it makes it easier on both you and the guy receiving the news.

Actually, I think there is some report that says if you fire someone on a friday they are more likely to commit suicied as they have the entire weekend to be in depression and think of why they shouldn't live. Where on the other hand if it is a Monday or Tuesday they can look at the paper and see that there are an abundance of jobs and feel better about the prospects.

I'm not sure if this is a real stat or not but somebody once told that to me, so take that with it what you will.

oh.

Why is that guy pointing a pneumatic nail gun that isn't plugged into a compressor at the back of that girls head?
Insanely lazy technical error, or backstory? It aint' a passlode or a hitachi.

I've got to the end of the month, all of them will get at least 30 days pay when they go some more as they have been working up to 7 years with the company.

Will have the letters of recomendation ready, treat them fair and be to the point.

That don't look like a nail gun at all, more like a blow dryer attached to some metal thing.

It's the movie American Psycho and he's imagining it.

You should 'accidentally' link them to this thread.

winner

That's the same thing as blaming it on "The Man".
Yea.... that took a lot of balls to say that. Wow.



You seriously can't see that?

I'm afraid things aren't going to work with ..... us.

Sooooo... as much as I hate to do this... I'm afraid that your vision is not in line with the vision and direction that this thread is headed.

I'm gonna have to move your desk down in the basement. And while your there... get yourself a flashlight and some insecticide... yeaaa.

Good practice, kids. Now it’s time for the easiest part of any coach's job. The cuts. Although I wasn't able to cut everyone I wanted to, I have cut a lot of you. Wendell is cut. Rudy is cut. Janey, you're gone. Steven, I like your hustle.

That's why it was so hard to cut you.

Congratulations, the rest of you made the team!

Except you, you and you.



We're among friends...you can say "depending on the sex of the employee".

Yay! I'm special!




You're cut too "shushy".

wow this really made me chuckle what movie is this again and whose the actor saying it " billybobthorton ? "

Actually, no. The way you put it, you are "the Man's" lackey. The way I put it, I'm the man. I guess it really depends on your position when you do it, but I don't want to come off as a fricking messenger man nor should the person feel like the person in charge didn't have the balls to fire them.

I think it's a simpsons quote.. maybe the softball episode?

It's simpsons but it's when the kids are on a football team.

"I have good news and bad news. The bad news is I have to kill you and your family. The good news is I'm kidding. You're only fired."

The only time I've ever been fired was done by an absolute complete pussy.

I worked for Circuit City as one of the Firedog tech guys. My job was working on computers in the store by going through the process given to us by a CC-issued USB key. The crappy thing is that Circuit City has a very limited amount of software and we're NOT allowed to actually manually work on the machines (won't let us open any of the customer's folders, registries, or anything... privacy policy) and we end up sending a lot of towers back to people that aren't completely clean (even though, by CC standards, it's clean when we know that there's a lot more work that could be done).


Either way, one day, my coworker takes a machine in, does the CC diagnostic, sees what's wrong and calls the customer with a solution. Well, the guy was pretty old and didn't fully understand what a Windows restore meant. He ok'd the process, my coworker got the right software, and formatted the entire thing. Turns out, he forgot to ask the old guy whether he wanted anything that was on his hard drive to be backed up. The guy comes back is pissed and heart-broken because, apparently, he had decades of old scanned photos that were all gone.

At this point, I figure my supervisor is going to come and do whatever he can to help this customer. Instead, my boss, basically, just comes over and tells the guy "Well, you ok'd the system restore, we did it, and now you owe us $99. We're sorry about your loss." I feel terrible about what happened and I'm about to flip out at my boss in front of him over that complete bullshit attitude he's taking... luckily, I didn't. Instead, though, I suggested that we make an exception one time and that we find some free trial restore software and at least try to get back whatever we can. My retardedly lazy supervisor glares at me and tells the guy that we're not allowed to use programs that aren't ok'd by CC (which is bs because we can do whatever we want with a manager's approval) and that we've done everything we can.

After the guy picks up his computer and leaves, I'm just standing there... completely shocked at what just happened. I mutter, to myself, "Man, **** Circuit City". Apparently, he heard me. He didn't mention it to the store manager, though, until 2 weeks later when we had a minor tiff about what the easiest way to stock a certain shelf was.

So I show up next day for work, look at my schedule, and realize that the next 2 days of mine have been crossed off (just 2 days, not all of them). I get called into the store manager's office and he tells me that my attitude and language from TWO WEEKS ago were unacceptable (fine, np) and that he was going to follow procedure and contact corporate HR to do an investigation (fine, np) on the incident. He says that, apparently, the way it works is that I get a call about the incident and another one letting me know if they want to take action on the situation. I voice that I'm fine with that and that I'm not worried because my expression was based off of wanting to help the customer. He asks me if I had any questions, I say no, and I'm out the door with the next 2 days off.

The fourth day finally rolls around and I'm wondering wth is up. I call in and a different supervisor tells me that I've been fired. I ask why and he says because of the incident. I ask about the investigation... when was I going to be able to tell my side of the story... where were my phone calls from corporate HR... etc. He just goes on to tell me that I "had my opportunity to defend myself when the store manager asked if I had any questions".

And that was that. It's still mind-boggling to this day. Plenty of other associates have said much much much worse things and in front of customers, no less. Friends who worked with me were calling me for days wondering what was going on and what happened. I felt better when a few of my good friends moved on to other retail positions because they didn't trust the management.

everyone knows Best Buy PWNS CC any day of the week!

I was wondering the same thing the first time I saw it (I actually laughed out loud and mentioned the missing air hose to my wife)... because it's not immediately apparent that he's just dreaming it.

I had a boss who would just stop scheduling you if you were fired. He would never tell anyone that they were fired....ever. If someone would ask him why they didn't have any hours he would just say they didn't need him next week and to check back later. He would actually keep them on the schedule with no hours until they stopped coming in or calling.

mcdonalds?

Depending on where you live..... but definitely true.

Not that Best Buy is actually worth anything, though. If you want something done right, find a local guy that you trust.

Geek Squad (Best Buy) and Firedog (Circuit City) are the EXACT same thing. If you think you're getting viruses removed and not getting a full OS restore, what you're really getting is the electronic box store's definition of "virus removal" as if that was actually the best route to make your computer better in the first place (to all people who look at their computers and wonder why it's slow... don't bother trying to figure it out or taking it to someone 1. back up the files you want 2. reformat your machine... that is the constant number one guarantee that your machine will be "clean" ... as far as hardware problems, that's a different story).

Say you know absolutely nothing about computers, but are able to process and utilize basic logic in your everyday life. I guarantee that you could work Geek Squad under Best Buy's standards just as well as every other employee in the nation.



Now as far as merchandise goes, you're comparing a 5 to a 6 on a scale of 1-10 when talking about your typical electronics retail experience. If you want a 9, though, find a Fry's and get a much larger selection.


And one hint about "sales shopping".

Every
single
big box
retailer
accepts
everyone else's
sales.

People who, literally, go to different stores to "price hunt" are wasting gas and time. Go on the internet and find the cheapest price for the item you're looking for. Call the closest place to you (Best Buy, CC, etc.). Ask them if they have it in stock. Print out the price you found online or just go to the store and make a supervisor look it up.

They are so determined to report high traffic numbers in their store that I've gotten Newegg.com and TigerDirect.com prices in Best Buy just because I brought in a copy of the web page that showed the lower price.

wow, that's weeeeeeaaaaaaak

Finished what turned into a re-structuring of 6 offices in 4 countries. Two offices were eliminated completely and over 30 were let go from all levels. Will chop a couple more in 2-3 months but the heavy lifting is done.

Hated doing this but it got easy after a while.

My turn!!!