Failure to Fire Causes More Problems Than It Solves

We see it every week, and most of the time it was avoidable. There’s someone in the business who needs to go. You know it. Their co-workers know it. Half the management team knows it. But nobody has actually done anything about it.

That delay doesn’t help. It makes things worse. Every extra week that person stays, they usually get a little more comfortable and a little more emboldened, because hesitation sends a message. And while the problem employee is settling in, your good employees are getting more irritated. They see who’s not carrying the load, who’s creating drama, who’s making everybody else’s life harder. They’re also watching management. And when management does nothing, people draw conclusions. Some of your best folks start wondering whether anybody’s really driving the bus.

Call me cynical, but there’s another reason not to drag your feet: a 5%’er who thinks the end may be near has a remarkable ability to suddenly become a victim of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or some Captain’s platter of all three. The claim doesn’t have to be good. It just has to exist. Once it does, your flexibility narrows fast. Reassign them? Retaliation. Write them up? Retaliation. Give honest feedback? Retaliation. Walk by without saying hello? Probably retaliation. Make eye contact? Also retaliation. You get the point. Better to deal with the issue before the issue starts managing you.

And the legal risk isn’t the only clock that’s ticking. Life happens. Even 5%’ers get pregnant, get injured, get sick, ask for leave, ask for accommodations, complain about stress, or suddenly find religion. The longer they stay, the more opportunities there are for some new fact to wander into the picture and muddy up what should’ve been a straightforward termination. It stops being, “Matt was bad at his job,” and starts being, “Matt was terminated right after he asked for FMLA leave.” That’s a much less pleasant story to defend.

There’s also a human side to this, and I don’t say that just to sound nice. Keeping someone in a job where they’re failing, flailing, or plainly unwanted isn’t kindness. Often they don’t really understand how badly it’s going because nobody’s leveled with them. At some point, a clean break is better for everyone, including them. If you handle it like a grown-up — professionally, directly, maybe with a resignation option and a fair severance package — these things can often be done without a bunch of unnecessary melodrama.

Netflix has a useful gut-check called the Keeper Test: if this employee told you tomorrow they were leaving, would you fight to keep them? If the honest answer is no, that tells you something. Most employers aren’t trying to run Netflix, and that’s probably for the best. But the basic point holds up. Your good employees already know who they’d keep and who they wouldn’t. They’re noticing whether you do too.

Now, this isn’t a license to fire people on instinct or in a burst of aggravation. Surprised people get angry, and angry people sue. If the employee has no idea there’s a problem, and you’ve got nothing documented, and you terminate them in the heat of the moment, there’s a decent chance you’ve just manufactured a brand-new mess. Sometimes your first instinct is wrong. Sometimes the manager is the problem. Sometimes people deserve a chance to fix it. And nobody should be fired just because it’s Tuesday and the boss is in a mood.

The point is simpler than that. Once you know there’s a real problem, start dealing with it. Document it. Pressure-test your thinking. Loop in HR or your employment lawyer. Make the decision carefully, then carry it out professionally. Don’t sit on it for three months while the facts get worse and your options get narrower.

Once you know, you know. After that, the hard part isn’t deciding. It’s just doing what needs to be done.