re: Continuing on my work theme…how many people have you had to fire/lay off in your career?

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I have managed 100-150 different employees over 15 years (obviously not all at once) in the corporate world.

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What's your career field? I don't know if it makes a difference, but I'm in corporate transportation engineering and never see anyone get fired even when they probably should.

I had to shut a branch down after losing a large contract. That was tough the people were doing good work and another company came in and under cut our rates. 35 people lost their job and I had to tell them all. On the positive side most ended up working for the other company.
outside of that Ive fired many others but it was 90% they fired themselves

I let employees fire themselves. I tolerate them until I don't.

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Thank you for the response. The performance part is also why I think i don't see firing. they won't fire but they don't do anything to work with them for improvement or even tell them they aren't cutting it. It would be a complete blindside, though I still think the employee knows that they are underperforming.

We are strictly profitable based on utilization, so the inefficiency is made up somewhere else and lowers profits and eats up budgets.

Gary Vaynerchuk gets asked "how do I get good at hiring?" He says, "You won't; get good at firing." As much as I think some people deserve it, I don't know if I'd be good at it if it were up to me.

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Complete Blindside firing is terrible and should never happen and is a sign of bad leadership. I try to provide consistent feedback; there should never be a doubt regarding an employee's standing. Every person that I have had to fire knew it was going to happen. What Vaynerchuk is saying, is that, if a person is not working out, provide feedback, help them improve, and if that does not work, make the decision quickly. In essence, do not allow your ego to delay what needs to be done. Be fair and respectful. Also, toxic employees are worse than poor performers. Three of the four people that I fired directly had a toxic element to them. I also inherited three of the four people that I fired.

As the one being fired, sometimes it's ok. I was on a contract out of college, and I questioned the quality of work, including my manager's (did so in a nice tone). I was finding inaccuracies and I was trying to get explanations/justifications. They ended my contract and told me that "I was not a good fit" (paid me for the remainder of the pay period). I landed a job two months later that paid almost double. The one that fired me has been fired multiple times. It stung, but it worked out for the better in the long run; the environment was toxic and fairly unprofessional.

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We call it "release them back into the wild"

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I always call it ‘Releasing their talent to the open job market.’

12 all in one day

I had to fire a few and it was the worst because the decision was made on high and I was basically told to do it. No corrective review, no imprivemwnt plan, just out of the blue. One was 3 months after having a positive review.

My company is run very much from the top down and not very professionally. It’s a case study in CEO telling everyone we want to hear what you think, but when somebody does that they get put on the list. I’ve had my manager tell me to tell my people not to ask any questions, because if they do he’ll get chewed because his people don’t know what’s going on.

It’s nuts.

I’ve hired probably 70 or so over the past 20 years. Fired about 15 or so.

More than enough, but most did it to themselves. The only ones that really bothered me was during Covid.

Had a contractor employee that was being totally disruptive in high intensity development meetings in an Arabian Gulf area location. The complex nature of his company contracts being administered from the US, would make this a time consuming endeavor. The site owner was on board with getting rid of him quickly. Security placed a dozen Playboy type magazines in his car trunk. When passing through security inspection next day, magazines were found, he was taken to the airport immediately. Problem solved.