Firing May Fire Back, Literally!

I agree that the disgruntled employee who fatally shot his ex-boss three times in the head, near the Empire State Building a few days ago somehow slightly overreacted…and should hopefully become a professional inmate, for life.

As a manager of people, I have always been conscious of my staff’s feelings and striven to interact with them in dulcet tones even in instances when raising my voice to more vociferous levels would have been both appropriate and acceptable. But I have adopted a management style which better suits my personality and have succeeded to strike a fine balance between my employers’ targets and my employees’ tantrums.

 

Firing people has never been my forte but have had to do it on a few occasions when there was enough evidence to pull the trigger. There is nothing worse in a manager’s job other than having to communicate such a decision to his own team members. Yet this is part and parcel and sometimes an inevitable, yet unenviable, part of the role of a manager.

During my 18 years in PR, I was once the victim of the ‘firing squad’ at an Abu Dhabi GRE and must admit I felt a terrible nausea and disgust at the way my redundancy was communicated to me despite the fact that I was looking for an exit anyway.

No matter the circumstances, there is nothing worse for a working person, to be told that for A, B or C reasons he or she is no longer wanted by the company who employs them because one is always left with feelings of inadequacy, ineptness and insecurity about his capabilities and career prospects.

All it takes then is a loose screw, a gun and three bullets…

Just remember, Targets & Tantrums start with F, you get fired if you fail to meet the former and you also get fired if you fail to tame the latter.