Many will remember the George Clooney movie about terminating employees, and have a laugh at the idea of George flying around the world to exit people. Of course, that didn’t end well, but every once in a while, based on what I do professionally, I get a dig about being the female version of George.
In today’s world of global competition, labor shortages and generational differences, the focus on attracting talent, employee engagement & retention encompasses everything that a company does. Whether we look at things like sustainability, contributing to the community, supporting employees in their education and development, sponsoring advancements in different areas (STEM programs, internships, university programs and the like), there is a focus on what companies can do to bolster their success and corporate image in the wider world. Ultimately, most companies are in the business to make money (leaving aside non-profits and the like), and have recognized that how they treat their employees can directly impact their ability to attract and retain the right talent in order to achieve their business objectives.
Therefore, as a part of this focus, what companies do once an employee joins has been given a lot of focus, especially in light of studies and experience that show there are generational differences around why people would want to work at a company and what they want to get out of the relationship. Research on topics such as ‘employee engagement and enablement,’ retention studies and vast amount of data around how best to attract, retain, develop and manage employees abound. In many markets, companies are competing mightily for the ‘best and brightest,’ and recognize it’s a matter of great importance for their success. In some cases, the lack of the right talent can lead to missed targets and deadlines, and even delays in launching new products or innovating. Ultimately, the ability to achieve the overall business strategy is strongly dependent on having the right people, in the right places, at the right time.
One area that seems to receive less attention (or at least I’m not seeing a whole lot of discussion of it) is how companies manage employees who are being forced to leave. Whether an employee is ‘let go’ due to performance or other issues, or the company has decided the position is no longer necessary, how the exit takes place impacts the view and perception of the company itself in the wider world, especially within the labor market. If you don’t believe me, just check Glassdoor or Twitter for the number of scathing comments about companies that don’t handle these things well. In a world of people using Yelp, TripAdvisor and other service reviewing apps to decide everything from which doctor to see for healthcare, to where to shop, to where to eat and even where to live, this cannot be ignored in the realm of employment.
After having recently been ‘let go’ from my company during a restructuring, it led me to reflect on how this process is managed. As an HR professional, I’ve unfortunately done a lot these notification meetings myself. I’ve also been on the other side of the table several times as the ‘impacted employee,’ so my reflections come from both angles – as the ‘notifier’ having to tell an employee their job is going away (both in the capacity of being the HR professional supporting a manager, and in the capacity of being the manager myself), and the ‘impacted employee’ being told that my job is gone.
Here are some thoughts (not an exhaustive list, and maybe not in the best order). I’ve divided these into the exiting process that’s driven by job elimination or restructuring, and the termination process that’s driven by the employee having done something serious enough to warrant dismissal. While both result in someone losing their job, there are some unique things about how you manage a reduction in force or redundancy, versus firing someone for a rules violation, performance issue or other forced leaving. There is some overlap, so I’d recommend looking at both sections since things like knowing someone’s visa status is pertinent in both cases.
Reduction in Force (RIF), Redundancy, or other termination with notification or consultation:
- As a manager, when you notify an employee, be there! Don’t do a notification meeting via phone. Be in the room. Yes, I know that these are hard emotionally, but think about the person receiving the news – you’re not the one losing your job, the employee is impacted even more than you. So, don’t hide behind a phone, have the decency and show the respect that another human being deserves, and sit with them in the room when they receive the news. I was once told that as an HR professional or manager, if you ever get comfortable exiting employees, then you need to have a serious think about your own emotional well-being – this should never get ‘easier,’ but maybe you get better at managing your own emotional reaction to the situation.
- If you can’t go in person due to geography or a schedule conflict that simply cannot be avoided, send someone you trust to be in the room with the employee. Again, don’t do this over the phone. Often, the HR person is the one in the room (with a manager on the phone), and this is fine – most in HR have years of experience dealing with human emotions and managing the exit process. While the vast majority of HR people I’ve met are not trained as therapists or counselors, we have at least been through these kinds of meetings before and can manage the emotional fall-out. I’ll say it again, ‘Don’t make an employee go through this on their own.’ As an aside, I’d also never advise a manager to notify an employee all by themselves – there are safety issues here (e.g. if the employee becomes violent), and also potential litigation issues (there is no witness to what you actually said to the employee). Bottom line is that you and at least one other person should notify the employee. This is usually the employee’s manager and the HR person, and that’s the ideal situation. However, it could be two managers, with HR on the phone. HR is there to ensure that any questions can be answered or documented for follow-up, and to step in if the discussion becomes heated (or things are said that could lead to litigation). Also note that most employees will have detailed and specific questions about their pay and benefits which are best answered by HR.
- DO NOT fly a person to another city to notify them, or send them to a conference or business meeting in a different city where you plan to notify them. Making someone sit on an airplane or to drive a route different from their normal commute (no matter how short the trip) after being told that their job is going away is simply heartless. I could say more, but I’ll end it there – it is cruel and unusual punishment (in my opinion) to make someone travel a long distance for news that is personally devastating to them. Then, to turn them around and have them make a slow, arduous return trip home just isn’t right.
- FOLLOW THE LAW – make sure that you’re following the necessary notification requirements in your country. While the US is known for ‘employment at will,’ and immediate departures during job eliminations, that is not the standard in other countries. If you are required to consult with an employee before notifying them of a job loss, do it! Yes, this can delay the process, and yes, it can create a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ situation, but these laws are in place to protect the employee, you and the company. A skilled HR professional can help you look at ways of streamlining the process and maybe it won’t take as much time as you think, but you really should follow these requirements. Do not rely on a settlement or release agreement as an excuse for not complying with the law. While it’s true that you can ‘pay someone off,’ it shows a lack of ethical behavior on the company’s part when you throw money at an employee in order to get out of following the rules. (Hmm, could this be a violation of the principles in your Business Ethics policy? Paying someone off so as to avoid legal entanglements?) Business moves fast, but there’s no reason to short-circuit the process just to get it over with faster. Unless there is some compelling reason, for example you suspect an employee is diverting company resources or doing something unethical, short-circuiting the process is not a good idea.
- Reconsider the practice of on-site, working notice periods. I once had an employee who was asked to stay for 2 months following her notification in order to transition and close out the role. Towards the end, she came to me and begged to be released earlier. She said that everyday she felt like someone with a terminal illness. Employees were walking on egg-shells around her, and struggled with what to say to her. In the end, a lot of her coworkers simply avoided her (which she of course noticed, and it impacted her productivity and desire to do a good hand-off). If a job is going away, get on with it. Don’t make someone come in day after day to pretend that they’re happy and excited about the prospects of handing their work to someone else. Likewise, don’t make them sit in business meetings to discuss the future of the business, or what will happen after they’re gone. Knowledge transfer is important, but figure out another way to do it so that the employee isn’t forced to spend time in the office once ‘everyone’ knows that they are leaving involuntarily. For the survivors, having a daily reminder that a colleague is losing their job is also difficult to manage. How can a survivor re-engage in their work when they have a daily reminder of what’s taken place? The message here is that you need to plan better how to manage a job elimination or termination where the work itself isn’t going away. Could the hand-off meetings take place elsewhere, or with the impacted employee calling in from home? Getting an employee that is leaving the business focused on their post-employment future is the best path for everyone.
- Know the full picture – make sure that you’re aware of all details about how this will actually impact the person. For example, if an employee is on a visa, find out what the implications are for him/her when it comes to job loss. Know this in advance, and have a plan for addressing it during the notification meeting. How will the company help an employee who is required to leave the country ‘immediately’? Are you going to help them move back to their country of origin? Are you going to give them access to immigration lawyers or other professionals that can help them? Most immigrants will know the implications of losing their job, but you should be aware at the time of notification. This has huge impact on the employee and their family – it’s not just about whether they have a job or not, this could mean having to sell a house or lose a security deposit on a rental unit, their spouse losing their job (if their employment eligibility is based on the employee’s visa), needing to pull their children from school, needing to figure out where they’re going to go next (especially if they don’t have a residence in their home country). HR should help you here, but as a manager, you need to know this so that you can show empathy and support to the employee. While an employee’s personal circumstances aren’t technically your business, it shows a great lack of common decency to ‘not care’ what is happening to someone (and their family) who doesn’t have the luxury (or flexibility) to just leave one company and join another in the same country.
- If you don’t have all the details, then don’t hold the meeting. If you’ve been ‘ordered’ to let go employee(s) from a higher level, but haven’t yet figured out how and when the job will go away, wait! Don’t rush a notification without knowing at least the basic details such as: when is the job going away, what are the high-level benefits or severance that will be offered, how the employee will be supported during the process, and so on. Meeting with someone to say that there’s been a reorganization at a high level, and their job is going away ‘soon’, but then saying ‘give me a few weeks to work this out’ is cruel. How is an employee supposed to continue working and coming into the office everyday knowing that the ax is falling, but not when? While most employees will zone-out at the words, ‘your job is going away,’ leaving them hanging about the details isn’t right either. HR may have to go back over the details several times before the exit happens (allowing the employee to go through the 5 stages of grief and so forth), but it is disrespectful of the employee to not have at least the high-level details at hand before you launch into a discussion that ends with the conclusion that their job going away. To me, notifying an employee before you know the details shows a lack of planning, structure and thought – not good for the impacted employee, but also potentially opening the company to unintended consequences (such as external complaints to government agencies, lawsuits and the like). As noted above, this also sends an unintended message to employees within the broader company about how you manage the business and whether people really are your most important asset.
- As long as HR doesn’t advise against it (for example, the employee has sought legal counsel), you should check in with the employee as often as you can after the notification meeting and before they leave the company entirely. If there is an extended process whereby the employee is continuing to come into work everyday until their exit date, call him/her. While there is nothing you can do to change the outcome, it goes a long way to show some empathy and care for your employees. As an employee, you feel bad enough that you’re losing your job, but if ‘everyone’ begins to treat you like you have some horribly contagious disease, it can make the process even more unbearable. There are two reasons for this – first, it makes a difference to the employee’s well-being, and secondly, the rest of the organization is watching you (and the company). How employees are treated on the way out goes a long way towards demonstrating your company’s cultural beliefs and values. Times change, business changes, no job is ‘permanent,’ we all know that, but there’s no reason to treat an employee whose job has gone away as if they have the plague. A manager, and company, can lose a great deal of credibility and respect from the ‘survivors’ following an exit process that is poorly managed. Also, you never know when you might cross paths with this person in the future. What if your job ends? What if you someday want to join the company that this employee went to after leaving yours? The departing employee is a part of your network, whether you’re still working together or not. Burning bridges can go both ways.
- Try, as much as possible, to avoid doing a ‘mass notification’ meeting. In some cases, these can’t be avoided, but if you must tell an entire group that jobs are going away, try to meet individually with those impacted as quickly as possible.
- And, always remember the ‘golden rule,’ treat others as you would want to be treated yourself. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the employee (or reflect on the times that you yourself have been notified). What mattered to you in the process? How did you feel? What did your manager do (or not do) that made a difference? I know that for many of us, the goal is to get the meeting over with as quickly and as painlessly (for us) as possible. By asking yourself, ‘how would I want to be treated if this were me?’ you can manage your approach better. While an employee may not react the same way that you would, at least by thinking about how you treat others in advance, you may be able to demonstrate real human empathy and compassion for someone who is losing their job – whether it is ultimately through poor performance or business change, doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that you show your own personal integrity and empathy in the process.
As an HR professional, one of the greatest compliments I ever received during a reduction in force was from a survivor who said that they were so impressed by how I managed the process and took care of the exiting employees. This person recognized that I had taken a great deal of care in preparing for the process, putting a lot of thought and attention into taking care of those impacted by the reduction in force, and ensuring that those who left were treated as well as those who stayed. While I can’t say that I’ve handled every situation well, we all have good days and bad, I can say that over my career, I have tried to do whatever I can to ease these transitions and make a terrible situation into a door-opening experience (as opposed to a door-closing).
Terminations or immediate departures without warning (or maybe less warning than a job elimination):
Some of the above will also apply here, but I’ve added a few thoughts that are specific to terminations with little to no warning.
- If the situation is an immediate termination, such as in the US during a reduction in force or a serious rules violation, conduct the meeting in a place where the employee can quickly exit without having to walk past their colleagues. While the other employees may not know what’s happening, forcing someone to do the ‘walk of shame’ is heartless. Try to arrange a confidential office or meeting room close to the building exit. Likewise, have the employee leave immediately – even if there is some notice period, the employee should be encouraged to go home immediately after the meeting.
- Offer to box up any personal possessions for the employee and have them delivered to their home. If the employee insists on clearing out their own desk, make arrangements to do this after hours (or once most of the other employees are gone from the employee’s department), or even on a weekend. Doing it this way means the employee isn’t having to actively pack up in front of everyone they’ve been working with at the company. If the employee agrees for you to box-up their things, have a witness who helps to document everything that goes into the box. The reason for this is that there’s a possibility an employee could later accuses the company of ‘stealing’ something of theirs, or missing personal belongings. You will want to show that one person didn’t put together the box by themselves (i.e. there is a witness). Providing a list, signed by the one boxing up and the witness, of what’s in the box also prevents the employee claiming that something was missing (which you actually did put everything into the box).
- If the employee is to box up their own things, provide a witness to ensure that no company property is taken. This needs to be managed sensitively – you aren’t accusing the employee of stealing, or destroying company property, but in the case of an exit, sometimes people do stupid things to ‘hurt’ the company in anger. It doesn’t need to be an overly visual display of supervising the process, but someone from the company (you, a security employee or other) should be checking to make sure that nothing goes awry during the process.
- If the employee is very upset (crying, visibly shaken or zoned-out), consider arranging for a company-paid taxi, or contacting a family member to take them home. Asking another employee to drive them home is not a good idea from a personal safety perspective and a company liability standpoint should something go wrong. Allowing someone to get into their car and drive when they’re emotionally distraught is not a good idea for anyone. While the person may not work for the company anymore, practicing some kindness and consideration for their well-being is important. Paying for a taxi or Uber / Lyft is short money. This also applies if the employee normally commutes via public transportation, or carpools with other employees. I’d advise a company-paid taxi or contacting a family member in these cases as well. Buses and trains don’t often provide enough service to ensure that someone can leave the building and quickly get home – making them wait an hour at a bus stop shows a lack of concern for their personal welfare. Also, having an employee wait for their other carpool buddies isn’t going to be good for them or the other employees who are then commuting home with someone who has just been told they’re losing their job.
- Take all the necessary precautions to protect the company. Most companies have a protocol in place when doing terminations as far as suspending IT accounts, canceling company credit cards and terminating building access badges. Oftentimes, these actions happen just before or during a termination meeting so that once the employee leaves the meeting room, they can’t fire off an angry email to ‘all employees’ about what’s just happened, or to ‘wipe’ their laptop of critical business information. (Sad to say, I’ve seen both of these happen – caustic emails sent to the entire company, as well as one time when a department administrator left the meeting and immediately wiped her computer hard drive, destroying all the documents she ever worked on. Less of an issue now with automatic backups or shared drives, but still a costly lesson about how people react in the heat of the moment).
- Take precautions to protect yourself. Look at the set-up of the room – where is the employee going to sit, and where will you sit? Where is the door? Is there a window in the room or door where others outside can see what’s happening when the door is shut? Do you need security nearby? Is there any history of angry outbursts or other indicators that the employee could become violent?
The potential for violence
After writing this, the terrible events of February 2019 at the Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, Illinois took place. This is a stark reminder of how a termination meeting can go horribly wrong. In this case, 5 employees lost their lives, and many other people were injured, when an employee who was being terminated shot those in the meeting and began shooting at other employees and the police who responded. He was shot by police responding to the incident, so a total of 6 people died in this incident. As soon as I heard about it, I knew that the HR Manager was one of the victims, even before the names were reported in the media. In this case, a termination meeting was being held. Based on the job titles of the people in the meeting, I could tell it had been scheduled, and the employee must have known the purpose and ultimate outcome of the meeting ahead of time. While his reaction was extreme, this is not outside the realm of possibility when you’re dealing with someone who is about to lose their job and means of financially supporting themselves (and their family). For many, their job is their life – it reflects their self-worth and defines their success in life. It’s hard to say whether this situation could have been prevented. Yes, the employee ‘shouldn’t’ have had a gun, but in the United States, the environment is such that people that aren’t ‘allowed’ to have guns can still get their hands on them. Rather than talk about gun control within this context, I’d like to look at it within the context of conducting a termination meeting.
The key message, for me, in this awful situation is that when you’re terminating an employee, you need to remember the potential for violence or a reaction that you’re not anticipating. Taking precautions as far as the location of the notification meeting, how the room is set up, whether you need internal or external security presence, and how to manage the discussion is critical. Consulting with an expert, such as law enforcement, may be warranted if you’re concerned that a particular employee could resort to violence.
Years ago, I had an employee that I was truly worried about. He had threatened violence towards his co-workers and his manager before, and in my mind, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that he could react violently towards us when I conducted the termination meeting with his manager. Given that both his manager and I were worried about how this meeting could go, we decided to consult our local police department. The manager and I met with a police officer and discussed how best to deal with the situation. Based on our discussion with the police, we moved the meeting to another office location that had better security controls in place (note that this location wasn’t terribly far from the employee’s home, so I didn’t violate my note above about making someone travel). We arranged to have an off-duty police officer (not in uniform) on site and also had the local police from the employee’s usual work location increase their presence near our site (in case he left the meeting with us and decided to take action against his work colleagues). In the end, the meeting wasn’t at all contentious. He knew that things had come to a point where working at the company was no longer in anyone’s best interests. We were able to come to a mutual decision to part ways, and he went on with his life. Tragedy averted – but, it could have just as easily turned out differently. If he had brought a gun with him, could I have been shot? The answer is ‘maybe.’ While he probably wouldn’t have gotten the gun into the actual meeting, I could have been at risk leaving the office at the end of the day, or he could have easily found out my home address by doing an online search. We did what we could to ensure that wouldn’t happen, and I’m comfortable that the police had helped us to prepare for the worst-case scenario, but you just never know what to expect when you’re going into this type of situation. These days, you can’t simply have your address be ‘unlisted’ in the local phone book – there are ways that people can track down where you live using basic online search engines, and this can put managers at an increased risk when terminating an employee.
I don’t know whether the HR Manager at Henry Pratt had arranged things to deal with the potential for violence. Maybe he did take precautions, but it all went wrong in the end. Whatever the case, this is a good reminder that no matter what you to do prepare, you can never accurately predict how someone is going to respond in the moment. The most mild-mannered employee may be the one who brings out a gun, while the ‘hot head’ could be the one that breaks down in tears. Being prepared is important, and looking at all potential outcomes can help you to respond in the moment, no matter what happens.
Conclusion
I’m sure that there are other points that are equally valid, and that not all situations allow for what I’ve outlined above. However, my point is to really think through the process of exiting employees from the organization. In the grand scheme of things, no one deserves to be treated like they are disposable. Even if there is poor job fit, or the employee has a ‘bad attitude,’ it is no excuse to show a lack of empathy, to treat another person with disrespect or to communicate that you really don’t care about someone’s feelings or personal situation. Managing an exit process is a time when you can demonstrate your personal beliefs and values, and ensure that you are behaving in a manner that is consistent with how you want others to view you. Ideally, you want the exiting employee to feel that while they were disappointed to leave, the company did everything to show its beliefs and values in action. After all, you, and your company, are being watched!
