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ratbastid · 07-21-2008, 05:20 AM

I think firing should be a last resort, obviously. Ever possible effort needs to have been made to bring the person up to speed.

Look, the "IS" of the question isn't real useful. The "who's to blame"ness of it doesn't move the organization forward. Blame never does, actually. I'd rather recast the question into a "productive way to look at it". One productive way to look at firing is, it's an opportunity for the organization to assess what went wrong in the selection and training of that person, to learn from those mistakes, and to have that less likely to ever happen again. Thinking about firing that way allows the manager and the organization to learn the most from the situation, regardless of whose "fault" it was or what "should" have happened.

In the company I used to work for, I had four developers who were brilliant and amazing and highly productive, one who would spend days at a time navel-gazing about design patterns and code tests, and one who didn't really seem to understand quite what we were doing. I wasn't part of hiring that last one--I was out of town at the time, and I think my boss felt like we needed another warm body, and liked the idea of hiring a black woman. She never really "got" the work we did, she was slow to deliver, and what she delivered rarely satisfied all the specifications. And I can say, given my immaturity as a manager at the time, that I never really did what I could have to turn her around. I gritted my teeth, recoded some of her work, apologized to customers, and went on with my day.

As the company went down the tubes (post-bubble, web development shops were hit hard, and we were no exception), and my boss and I put in order the priority for keeping people. Navel-gazer was first to go, then a REALLY solid developer who had been hired only a couple weeks earlier. I asked about my problem child, and my boss said, "I just can't fire a black woman." Sigh. He's a good guy, but is social conscience was at odds with his business sense.

Point is, I can say her inability to produce was her fault, but that doesn't develop me as a manager. If I take responsibility for it, I can see clearly the things I need to put in place to make sure my people hit the ground running and stay running.

07-21-2008, 05:20 AM	#10 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	I think firing should be a last resort, obviously. Ever possible effort needs to have been made to bring the person up to speed. Look, the "IS" of the question isn't real useful. The "who's to blame"ness of it doesn't move the organization forward. Blame never does, actually. I'd rather recast the question into a "productive way to look at it". One productive way to look at firing is, it's an opportunity for the organization to assess what went wrong in the selection and training of that person, to learn from those mistakes, and to have that less likely to ever happen again. Thinking about firing that way allows the manager and the organization to learn the most from the situation, regardless of whose "fault" it was or what "should" have happened. In the company I used to work for, I had four developers who were brilliant and amazing and highly productive, one who would spend days at a time navel-gazing about design patterns and code tests, and one who didn't really seem to understand quite what we were doing. I wasn't part of hiring that last one--I was out of town at the time, and I think my boss felt like we needed another warm body, and liked the idea of hiring a black woman. She never really "got" the work we did, she was slow to deliver, and what she delivered rarely satisfied all the specifications. And I can say, given my immaturity as a manager at the time, that I never really did what I could have to turn her around. I gritted my teeth, recoded some of her work, apologized to customers, and went on with my day. As the company went down the tubes (post-bubble, web development shops were hit hard, and we were no exception), and my boss and I put in order the priority for keeping people. Navel-gazer was first to go, then a REALLY solid developer who had been hired only a couple weeks earlier. I asked about my problem child, and my boss said, "I just can't fire a black woman." Sigh. He's a good guy, but is social conscience was at odds with his business sense. Point is, I can say her inability to produce was her fault, but that doesn't develop me as a manager. If I take responsibility for it, I can see clearly the things I need to put in place to make sure my people hit the ground running and stay running.