We always hope that our employees are all working together to make our workplace better. But sometimes they don’t all seem to be rowing in the same direction. One or two employees seem to be paddling away from the mothership. What is up with that?
Heather Huhman of Come Recommended wrote a Huffington Post article today offering some tips on how to deal with an employee who “needs to leave.” She suggests the following, in this order:
- Confront
- Warn
- Relocate
- Mend (if possible)
- Terminate (if all else fails)
Me, I would have placed Mend a little further up the list, but I’m of an older generation than Ms. Huhman. Maybe the Gen Y way is to confront first, mend later, I don’t know.
I do agree that not all employees can be saved, having at times in my younger years been one of those that should have been confronted, warned, relocated, or terminated. My mind was on other things, I admit. I had the paddle in deep, heading off into the wilderness. I was quite ready to leave the mothership behind, but rarely did anyone call me on it. I remember one or two who confronted, half-heartedly, and one that warned, with no explicit consequences. I can’t remember any manager who tried to mend. I don’t know if it would have brought me back on board, but it would have been nice to have some help articulating why I was bent on rowing away from everyone else in the organization.
Is your team rowing in the same direction, or do you have a few chronic malcontents paddling for the rocks? Do you try to save them? Or do you let them go?
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