How To Fire Employees?

kanadaeh

Hi, I'm just curious on how everyone deals with letting go of employees. I'm sure some of you have been around long enough to have attracted good, steady employees, but I'm finding in the growth phase of our business, firing is more common. I think I will start to tell new employees there is a 30 Prohibition period and then we will decide if we will keep them. Anyways, how do you break the news and do you ever give a second chance or stand firm? Do any of you have any funny or scary firing stories? What are some of the things that you have fired for? We have an employee that is a pretty good, steady, and dependable painter but he is a little rough around the edges. Not sure what to do yet.

DamionR

When I was 19 I had my best friend working for me... knew him since the day i was born... lived beside me growing up - his parents and mine we're great friends...

... so of course it ends up I had to get rid of him. I completely felt horrid about it... and made it an emotional situation.

The funny part was - he was glad I did it because he wanted to leave but was still working because of our relationship.

So after that, I pretty much had balls of steel and no problem stating facts to people. The biggest advice have is not to make it direct blame on the person - blame it on why what they are doing is not helping the business. This makes it non-emotional... and people take it much easier.

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roofwiz74

get over it.Fire them.I love to fire people.It takes alot for me to fire a guy,so by the time I'm there I'm enjoying it.
that is one thing I loved about corperate roofing...no production...no job.

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Boogga

Roofwiz, you are a cold bloke.

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Ed the Roofer

I had to let go of my lead man after several fellow crew members complained that he kept on going down to his truck to drink his beer out of a brown paper bag.

I did not do anything on 3rd party information but I borrowed a different vehicle and brought my binoculars and parked about a block away from the job site.

I saw him do as the guys said. I confronted him about it and warned him that if I catch him or if it is reported to me again, there would be consequences.

On another roof, about one week later, I found his brown bag and beer on the roof. I asked if it was his. He said yes. I told him that he just fired himself.

I let him know that if he straightened out his act, he could reapply for a job in one year.

I think that the key is to let them fire themselves after disobeying company rules or creating a safety hazard.

Ed

Mike Finley

I'm guessing most firing processes take place with taking ole Joe out to for a talkin' to under the willow tree or a screaming match on the job site, but another way is to have what's called an employee handbook which outlines the do's and don'ts for employees, then when an employee is breaking your rules it's a simple matter of discussing the issue, pointing out the issue as outlined in writing in your handbook and following the guidelines of firing which are also outlined in your handbook. You might have a process depending on the severity of the issue where it's a verbal or written warning or 'write up' of the first or 2nd offense then immediate dismissal after that.

In the 'real' world this is pretty much the procedure, based mostly upon how sue happy everybody is and companies need to protect themselves. Obviously in construction it's a looser set of rules we all can play by, but there certainly are a lot of over-looked advantages to that system even in our industry. I wouldn't over-look the advantages of that system in re-aligning a slightly derailed employee with a lot of potential who has just gotten off track a bit.

roofwiz74

i was just kidding
I'm not that bad,when a guy asks for it though.

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Mud Master

My fathers old foreman always used to say...

"Never hang a man. Give a man long enough and he will hang himself."

And that is very true, you let a man go long enough and eventually he will slip and fire himself.

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roofwiz74

I don't think you should get into a shouting match and maybe a physical confrontation.I let them know at the end of the day or before work the next.I worked out of town and I would try to get them their bus ticket before hand.That way they could depart before there was a chance for trouble.

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Stone Mountain

Many years ago we hired a young lady as an office helper.
She was STUNNING!. 5'7" or so, blonde, very well built, slim, short skirts, large, round .....well, you get the picture. And she let everybody know it.
She couldn't do the job though, and it fell to me to fire her.
She offered certain....compensations.... if we would keep her on the job, but my mind was made up. Like the Man of Steel, I did the deed (firing, that is, you guys should take your mind out of the gutter!), resolutely and with courage, stength and a stiff......upper lip.
every firing since has been just as hard, but if you gotta do it, you gotta do it.

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kanadaeh

That's some good advice. Fortunately after a lengthy conversation today, I don't have to let my painter go. He approached me and more or less apologized for the way he's been acting the past few days. He said he had a chat with his buddy before work today and he now realizes how good he has it. I guess his buddy is not very happy with his job. It kinda made me feel good. We then proceeded to to talk about our goals and how we can reach them. It's amazing what a little communication can do.

woodmagman

You need to be on T.V. to fire anyone. You had criteria when you hired, have criteria to fire.

BattleRidge

I don't mind, Customers don't hold back on me if they mess up why should I hold back on them.

I have kind of come to a realization in my early 20s. Almost every person people think is an a hole is made that way by an actual a-hole.

Your in a movie and a guy in front of you won't quit texting if you tell him to put it away, everyone looks at you like your the a ss.

One of my renters didn't pay who happens to be a friend so at ten days late I said, Hey man I need to get that rent from you, he made a scene and went and got money on the spot.(Hardly what I meant, but got the job done) But made me look like an a hole in front of all the other renters even though I worked hard to buy the place, he should work hard to pay his share. The fact I had to ask seems more annoying then what i DID.

Lastly I fired a guy, that didn't show up, didn't call, nothing. On top of that had my tools in the truck so I call and he doesn't answer. I had to go to his house. Get my tools that were still in his truck out front his house. On top of that I left town and he didn't go to work for 3 days he was supposed to. So I fired him. I said, you won't take care of me how do you expect me to take care of you. He says. "I make a lot of money for you and your not even appreciative." with a few expletives. Tells me that I just make my money of others back breaking labor. I was pissed and just told him to hit the road. Seems like anymore the boss is always the bad guy and no one wants to be on a team. Like you make their money and a magically fairy gives them theirs.

In hindsight, I should have said no **** sherlock thats like the textbook definition of a sheetrock/roofing contractor. Look it up. Some people are so entitled these days.

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concretemasonry

Do it quickly after you have a chance to evaluate the person, because the future is what you were hiring them for.

At one time, we had two unions (Teamsters and Laborers) and one contract required a 30 day period and the other had a 90 day period for probation.

A week or two before the period was over, I got calls from the union BAs reminding and wanted to know what we thought. The BA did not want a bad employee to represent and did not want to get into future problems representing him. They knew he could be replaced with another union member that could work out well for everyone in the future. - They wanted a quick and justified reason to get rid of a bad employee. The knife cuts both ways.

It is always much better with less trouble to do it quickly after an evaluation and give some reasons for the decision.

Good luck, because it is not easy.

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Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

wyoming 1

Wow my friend to the north you must have had a bad day to bring up a 4 year old thread. I have a bad habbit of thinking "it will get better" when I know they need to go so by the time I finally do I am good and mad. So it's easy for me to say the sooner the better when you know it isn't working.

BattleRidge

HA thats weird I was just refreshing the new posts page and saw this. I haven't fired someone for quite a while and had a really nice warm day today.

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wyoming 1

I fiqured something must have happened. We had a good day too. You guys stayin busy up there?

Leo G

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CJA

Couldn't have said it better. Follow the company policy and procedure, do it on a one on one (PRIVATE) setting, and no matter what don't get in a screaming match. I just bring people in, sit them down and plainly say "I don't think your a good match for my company and I'm letting you go." If they ask for more info on why I'm letting them go, I pull out the written warnings and explain that it's obvious that he can't follow my company policies and it's just best for us both to move forward in different directions.

Good luck & happy trails.

It's that simple.

cwatbay

Mr. Finley is right again.

I was with a firm once where the owner would fire people just because he felt like it. Although his trick was to have someone else do the actual processes of firing.

As a manager, and someone with business experience, I worked with HR to establish a procedure so that when someone was terminated (ie: fired) there was no basis for legal action on the employee's part.

The first thing was to have an employee manual that stated what the company's expectations were, what your job was, what your duties and responsibilities were. There was also a section on the process of evaluation, warnings and termination. It was all spelled out, black and white. Plus upon receiving this manual, the employee had to sign a document stating they had received it and read it.

Once the ground rules are set, then it is just a matter of everyone following the rules and meeting expectations. There is no guess work and no one feels they got singled out for not following any "unwritten" rules.

Here is what I do:
1) Everyone takes a basic skills test prior to hiring
2) Specialists and tech's take a more advanced test prior to hiring
3) Depending on the position there is a 30 to 90 day probationary period
4) Everyone gets an employee manual with a special section on their position that details what is expected for that position
5) If anything isn't quite right or not meeting expectations, we have an immediate and private face to face discussion, keeping it open and professional.
6)If at the end of the probationary period, they haven't met the stated expectations and goals, then it is over.
7)At the end of the probationary period, they get an evaluation of exactly what expectations and goals they have met - rated as Excellent, Good, Needs work, and Not Met.
8) Everyone gets an evaluation every 6 months ( usually prior to a raise ). Also, raises are based on meeting and/or exceeding goals and expectations, not just how long you have been here.
9) Firing process: 2 - Verbal Warnings with employee sign off, then, Up to 2 - written warnings with employee sign off.