The last task I wanted in my very first week as the new corporate human resource manager was the unwelcome assignment to fire a long-service veteran employee. It turned out to be one of the most enlightening experiences of my professional life.
According to the file passed to me, this formerly reliable senior chemist had begun missing work without offering any reasons. His supervisor documented a series of short counseling meetings; but the miscreant offered no excuses and showed no improvement. His new habit of regular inexplicable absences continued, disrupting operational schedules and antagonizing his entire department. The days missed accumulated to levels that demanded correction, setting off a chain of progressive disciplinary actions. All attempts to remedy the absences failed. The ominous tone of the written warnings escalated. The last memo in the file was a blunt threat that his employment was at risk. When I requested permission to meet with the culprit to attempt a final intervention to salvage the situation, I was sternly told it was too late. Instead, I was ordered to accept my role as the unwilling HR manager designated to be the official terminator.
Our first personal meeting came when I broke the news to the distinguished professional scientist that he was being fired. Hiding my insecurity about being a young newcomer confronting a total stranger in a potentially volatile situation, I gently explained that his failure to restore his attendance to acceptable levels forced the corporation into terminating his employment. Since I also handled the benefits programs and pension plans (yes, it WAS long ago), I offered to assist him with the generous severance package authorized by the puzzled management team. Although baffled and frustrated by his intransigence, they felt guilty and offered a soft landing to cushion his loss of a well-paid career job.
The fellow sat calmly through my slow and deliberate presentation, saying nothing, asking no questions, expressing no emotion, making no comment and showing no reaction at all, until after I had finished. Then, during the silence, he looked over my head with his eyes focused into the distance and began slowly speaking in a low voice. “For some years,” he mused, “I've been working in my basement on a product I always wanted to make and sell. My wife called it my silly hobby. I always wanted to make it my life's work. But she said I already made such a good living here that we couldn't afford to give it up and risk everything on my silly hobby.” He gave a gentle sigh.
I swear a small smile appeared on his face as he dropped his view to take in my frozen visage. “Guess we'll have to try it now,” he said. He departed, the happiest discharged employee I ever saw either before or since then.
He was now forced by circumstances to do what he had always yearned to do. I had just granted him the opportunity to live his lifelong dream. He had cleverly maneuvered everyone into freeing him from drudgery and forcing him to pursue his dream. The way he sabotaged his job and maneuvered his employer into enabling his career change to entrepreneurship was brilliant. But he was so innocently bemused and lost in thought as he left that I still believe he didn't consciously follow a deliberate plan.
The lessons, to me, were many and profound. Here are a few:
- Termination can be a reward.
- What you think is a negative consequence may be seen as a positive benefit by another person.
- Being fired is not always a punishment.
- Keeping your job is not always a positive thing.
- Anything desired is a reward, even if it looks bad to someone else.
- People usually act in ways they believe serve their best interest.
- Motivations, like thoughts, are personal and just as diverse as people are.
- Even the biggest enterprise is still a human organization.
- Humans behave in ways that don't always make obvious sense.
- Finally, all generalizations are never universally true, including this one.
Feel free to share your similar stories.
E. James (Jim) Brennan is an independent compensation advisor with extensive total rewards experience, specializing in job evaluation, market pricing and pay budget distribution. After corporate HR jobs in chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, he consulted at retail, government, energy, IT, tax-exempt and other industries throughout North America before becoming Senior Associate of pay survey software publisher ERI until returning to consulting in 2015. A prolific writer (author of the Performance Management Workbook) and speaker, Jim gave expert witness testimony in many reasonable executive compensation cases both for and against the Internal Revenue Service and also serves on the Advisory Board of the Compensation and Benefits Review.
Image courtesy of Digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Comments