This week for one of our assignments, we had to interview someone (outside of healthcare, like usual), who is responsible for firing and disciplining employees. I interviewed my friend, Lisa M., who is a manager at Maceys.
Q: Before taking disciplinary action, do you role play what you will say?
A: No, not really. If I am taking disciplinary action, the employee is doing something to violate our company policy or they are not meeting expectations. We make our expectations very clear, so it's not difficult to tell them what they are doing wrong.
Q: How many warnings do you give your employees before termination?
A: Our employees are allowed 1 verbal warning, then 3 written warnings before termination.
Q: What types of situations would warrant immediate termination without warning?
A: I don't think I, personally, have ever had a situation where I was going to immediately terminate an employee for their actions. What I tend to see more often is if I give someone a verbal warning for an inappropriate action or behavior and the employee immediately chooses to walk out and terminate themselves.
Q: Is it emotionally draining for you to have to terminate someone? If so, how do you manage to not take the emotion home with you?
A: In some situations, yes, but most of the time, the employee is given plenty of warning and simply chooses to continue with the inappropriate behavior or with breaking the rules. Those are, I hate to say "easy," but easy terminations. They were given plenty of opportunities to change the behavior. Our expectations are clear, and for one reason or another, they chose not to meet those expectations.
Q: When disciplining someone, do you do it alone, or have another staff member, such as an HR representative, present?
A: I always have someone else present, usually the store director, or the assistant store director. We don't have HR in store, so it's easier to just have one of the higher ups in on the meeting.
Q: Do you ever terminate someone on a Friday?
A: I have terminated people on a Friday before. When they hit their limit of written warnings, it's better for us to adhere to our standards and terminate them sooner rather than later.
Q: Do you like to hire a new employee before firing to prevent feeling under-staffed?
A: Sometimes if we think that we will be terminating someone, we will open a position knowing that it may take a while to fill, but no, that's not really something we take into consideration.
Q: Did it take you time to feel comfortable terminating employees? How long?
A: Oh absolutely. When I first became a manager, I was so nervous about hiring and firing employees, but after the first few times and once I realized that we really do give plenty of warning and opportunities for the employee to change, it was something I became more comfortable with. It's still not my favorite thing, but I understand why it has to be done. But it probably took me several years in the role before I started to feel comfortable with it.
Q: What difficulties have you faced firing employees?
A: Other than the difficulties mentioned when I first started, such as feeling bad or feeling guilty, I haven't really had any experiences that I would label as difficult. Obviously all terminations are difficult; it's not easy to tell someone you have made the decision to terminate their employment with your company.
Q: In disciplining a friend, was it challenging to have them see you as an authority figure?
A: I don't think so. I always maintain a sense of authority with those that I work with because it is easier that way. I haven't worked with a really close friend that I had to discipline.
Q: When you go into a firing/discipline interview, do you still give the interviewer a chance to defend themselves, or are you set in what your action will be?
A: No. We give them plenty of opportunities to defend themselves, or better yet, change their behavior prior to termination. If we have reached the termination stage, it's over. We won't keep giving them opportunities to defend themselves. They've had four warnings at this point.
Q: Before a firing/discipline interview, what type of information do you try to gather and access?
A: Do you mean information about the employee? Like personal information or work related information? Usually, before we get to a firing/discipline interview, we collect information about the employee. We mostly ask the supervisors who work closely with them about their work ethic, how they responded to the verbal warning about their behavior, and stuff like that. How do they treat customers, etc. But it's not a huge factor in the interview. We already know what we have been struggling with them about and we have the copies of the write ups so we can provide specific examples for why the termination is happening.
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I thought this interview was very interesting. This time I actually interviewed someone that I worked with previously, as opposed to just a friend I knew, so it was cool to be able to talk to someone about "inside information."
After talking with Lisa, I feel like it gave me a better perspective on firing and disciplining employees. Like it mentioned in the lectures and assignments last week, we discipline employees to help them improve. We want them to be meeting standards, and if they aren't, sometimes we have to take action to help them improve.
As for terminating employees, you can't continually keep attempting to correct a behavior, and you shouldn't have to. I think this was a good reminder to myself about that. Employees are responsible for their own actions, and we can attempt to correct or change those actions, and we give them plenty of opportunities and warnings to do that, but it's a two-way street, and if they don't put in the effort to change, they shouldn't be employed at this company.
Q: Before taking disciplinary action, do you role play what you will say?
A: No, not really. If I am taking disciplinary action, the employee is doing something to violate our company policy or they are not meeting expectations. We make our expectations very clear, so it's not difficult to tell them what they are doing wrong.
Q: How many warnings do you give your employees before termination?
A: Our employees are allowed 1 verbal warning, then 3 written warnings before termination.
Q: What types of situations would warrant immediate termination without warning?
A: I don't think I, personally, have ever had a situation where I was going to immediately terminate an employee for their actions. What I tend to see more often is if I give someone a verbal warning for an inappropriate action or behavior and the employee immediately chooses to walk out and terminate themselves.
Q: Is it emotionally draining for you to have to terminate someone? If so, how do you manage to not take the emotion home with you?
A: In some situations, yes, but most of the time, the employee is given plenty of warning and simply chooses to continue with the inappropriate behavior or with breaking the rules. Those are, I hate to say "easy," but easy terminations. They were given plenty of opportunities to change the behavior. Our expectations are clear, and for one reason or another, they chose not to meet those expectations.
Q: When disciplining someone, do you do it alone, or have another staff member, such as an HR representative, present?
A: I always have someone else present, usually the store director, or the assistant store director. We don't have HR in store, so it's easier to just have one of the higher ups in on the meeting.
Q: Do you ever terminate someone on a Friday?
A: I have terminated people on a Friday before. When they hit their limit of written warnings, it's better for us to adhere to our standards and terminate them sooner rather than later.
Q: Do you like to hire a new employee before firing to prevent feeling under-staffed?
A: Sometimes if we think that we will be terminating someone, we will open a position knowing that it may take a while to fill, but no, that's not really something we take into consideration.
Q: Did it take you time to feel comfortable terminating employees? How long?
A: Oh absolutely. When I first became a manager, I was so nervous about hiring and firing employees, but after the first few times and once I realized that we really do give plenty of warning and opportunities for the employee to change, it was something I became more comfortable with. It's still not my favorite thing, but I understand why it has to be done. But it probably took me several years in the role before I started to feel comfortable with it.
Q: What difficulties have you faced firing employees?
A: Other than the difficulties mentioned when I first started, such as feeling bad or feeling guilty, I haven't really had any experiences that I would label as difficult. Obviously all terminations are difficult; it's not easy to tell someone you have made the decision to terminate their employment with your company.
Q: In disciplining a friend, was it challenging to have them see you as an authority figure?
A: I don't think so. I always maintain a sense of authority with those that I work with because it is easier that way. I haven't worked with a really close friend that I had to discipline.
Q: When you go into a firing/discipline interview, do you still give the interviewer a chance to defend themselves, or are you set in what your action will be?
A: No. We give them plenty of opportunities to defend themselves, or better yet, change their behavior prior to termination. If we have reached the termination stage, it's over. We won't keep giving them opportunities to defend themselves. They've had four warnings at this point.
Q: Before a firing/discipline interview, what type of information do you try to gather and access?
A: Do you mean information about the employee? Like personal information or work related information? Usually, before we get to a firing/discipline interview, we collect information about the employee. We mostly ask the supervisors who work closely with them about their work ethic, how they responded to the verbal warning about their behavior, and stuff like that. How do they treat customers, etc. But it's not a huge factor in the interview. We already know what we have been struggling with them about and we have the copies of the write ups so we can provide specific examples for why the termination is happening.
I thought this interview was very interesting. This time I actually interviewed someone that I worked with previously, as opposed to just a friend I knew, so it was cool to be able to talk to someone about "inside information."
After talking with Lisa, I feel like it gave me a better perspective on firing and disciplining employees. Like it mentioned in the lectures and assignments last week, we discipline employees to help them improve. We want them to be meeting standards, and if they aren't, sometimes we have to take action to help them improve.
As for terminating employees, you can't continually keep attempting to correct a behavior, and you shouldn't have to. I think this was a good reminder to myself about that. Employees are responsible for their own actions, and we can attempt to correct or change those actions, and we give them plenty of opportunities and warnings to do that, but it's a two-way street, and if they don't put in the effort to change, they shouldn't be employed at this company.
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