Mixed emotion about seeing someone get fired

Throughout my whole job career I had only seen two people get fired and today was one of them. Even though she deserved it, I felt kind of bad for her. She's a single parent and she's not very technical. Is going to be rough for her to get a job similar to what she's doing now.

To all the I.T manager out there, how do you guys approach/handle this? How many chances do you guys give before you let them go?

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nhan.ng

did she suck really bad at her job that got her fired? how did she even qualified for the job in the first place?

ehh try not to think much about it man. After all, it's just business, dont let it bother you personally. She'll be fine.

N2IT

willanderson1111 wrote: »

Throughout my whole job career I had only seen two people get fired and today was one of them. Even though she deserved it, I felt kind of bad for her. She's a single parent and she's not very technical. Is going to be rough for her to get a job similar to what she's doing now.

To all the I.T manager out there, how do you guys approach/handle this? How many chances do you guys give before you let them go?

Will this might not make me popular but I don't really care to be honest.

If you aren't delivering you are hurting my progress and putting me endanger which could effect my family.

I had a boss once tell me leave your heart in the drawer and that is exactly what I do.

As far as chances go it's impossible to say. One f you to a customer or a senior leader would be one and done. Mess ups I let slide for quite a while.

Mike-Mike

my job hires and fires people like crazy, at this point I have had no problems seeing people let go... I did have a buddy quit, and that really bummed me out. Generally the people who get fired either have a very bad attitude, or are simply just not good at the job, and in either of those cases they need to go.

NetworkingStudent

willanderson1111 wrote: »

Throughout my whole job career I had only seen two people get fired and today was one of them. Even though she deserved it, I felt kind of bad for her. She's a single parent and she's not very technical. Is going to be rough for her to get a job similar to what she's doing now.

To all the I.T manager out there, how do you guys approach/handle this? How many chances do you guys give before you let them go?

I haven’t seen anyone get fired, but I have seen a few get demoted and laid off. I do know that in this economy there is no room for mediocre. You need to be the best at what you do, and if you’re not there is always some willing to take your spot in a heartbeat.

Zaits

If someone gets fired they typically deserve it, but when someone gets laid off because of the economy that's tough to see sometimes.

cyberguypr

As a sysadmin I've been asked a few times to gather information that has directly resulted in firing people. I don't think much about it. My employer pays me to do a set of tasks and I do them. If someone misuses company resources, under performs or whatever that justifies being separated from employment, so be it.

If there are reductions due to economic reasons, still sucks, but business is business.

Pishof

cyberguypr wrote: »

As a sysadmin I've been asked a few times to gather information that has directly resulted in firing people. I don't think much about it. My employer pays me to do a set of tasks and I do them. If someone misuses company resources, under performs or whatever that justifies being separated from employment, so be it.

If there are reductions due to economic reasons, still sucks, but business is business.

As a sysadmin I had to gather evidence of a secretary browsing facebook consistently after her boss told her not to do anymore after being caught a few times and the boss noticing a trend.

She kept denying it later and I was tasked with finding evidence in which I did. It's not a pleasant feeling working on a task that will lead to a mother's dismissal but when the next administrative assistant was an amazing hard worker that also has her CPA and adjunct teaches accounting classes I felt better afterward.

MrRyte

willanderson1111 wrote: »

To all the I.T manager out there, how do you guys approach/handle this? How many chances do you guys give before you let them go?

How I would handle it would would depend on the offense. Some offenses should be handled with a clear warning (facebook, slacking off at work, disruptive behavior); some deserve a writeup (arguing with coworkers; not notifying the manager about potential issues) and the worse ones should be given immediate termination (arguing with a client; insubordination.)

The more serious the infraction the less leeway I'd give the employee. I don't expect the employee to know every single rule in the code of conduct, but there are some things that are plain simple common sense.

arwes

We've got a rule here that if you go to work for a competitor, you're fired on the spot. I found out about it when one of our CSRs got a job at an agency down the road from us. It was really embarrassing, it was pouring down like cats & dogs outside, she's bawling her eyes out and our CEO is standing over her with his arms folded and scowling at her as she toted her things to her car. Classy!

I guess they only do that when there are enough people to take the slack, because they'd fired another lady a few weeks ago and someone in the same department got a job with another competitor, yet they let her stay on a week or so until they could get another person hired.

erpadmin

Pishof wrote: »

She kept denying it later and I was tasked with finding evidence in which I did. It's not a pleasant feeling working on a task that will lead to a mother's dismissal but when the next administrative assistant was an amazing hard worker that also has her CPA and adjunct teaches accounting classes I felt better afterward.

Wait up.....

This new secretary is a CPA and is an adjunct professor??

I have to ask....why?

Also, in my current job, I had one minor involvement with a very public firing. It would soon be high profile but at the time, I had to lock this person's AD account. When the information became public, I just thought "oh ----!"

At my desktop support gig, it was routine to join security in collecting PCs and IP phones when someone got canned. One day there were mass layoffs.....this was before and after 9/11........soon it would be my turn but I found a job before that happened.

Devilsbane

Saying goodbye is never easy in any relationship, personal or professional. I have also felt the "guilt" that you speak of.

But sometimes these firings are a good thing, she might start something new that is 10 times better than what she has today. This reminds me of a song by Sunny Sweeney. Staying's worse than leaving. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sunnysweeney/stayingsworsethanleaving.html (Nice guitar part)

cyberguypr wrote: »

As a sysadmin I've been asked a few times to gather information that has directly resulted in firing people. I don't think much about it. My employer pays me to do a set of tasks and I do them. If someone misuses company resources, under performs or whatever that justifies being separated from employment, so be it.

I haven't gathered the information, but I have been requested by HR to kill off access before. Leads me wondering what happened but when it comes down to it I'm just here to do my job. What they did is non of my business.

JDMurray

willanderson1111 wrote: »

She's a single parent and she's not very technical. Is going to be rough for her to get a job similar to what she's doing now.

And there is no other position that she can hold in the business for about the same rate of pay? There may be unpublicized reasons why she was forced to leave to company (i.e., "terminated for wrong doing").

Here in California we have "at will employment," which means you can be fired or quit in a moments notice and no one is at fault. It is very much like California's no-fault divorce on the grounds of "irreconcilable differences." The basic difference between "at will'ed" and being "fired" is that you are still eligible to collect unemployment insurance.

Turgon

willanderson1111 wrote: »

Throughout my whole job career I had only seen two people get fired and today was one of them. Even though she deserved it, I felt kind of bad for her. She's a single parent and she's not very technical. Is going to be rough for her to get a job similar to what she's doing now.

To all the I.T manager out there, how do you guys approach/handle this? How many chances do you guys give before you let them go?

Its an employers market. If you are not delivering what they expect of you (even when they dont have a clue) and they lay off..Too bad. You are heading to welfare. My advice to anyone is to knuckle down the next couple of years, deliver whatever it is your employer wants, and back on down on the surfing. *They* are watching you.

jamesp1983

Mike-Mike wrote: »

my job hires and fires people like crazy, at this point I have had no problems seeing people let go... I did have a buddy quit, and that really bummed me out. Generally the people who get fired either have a very bad attitude, or are simply just not good at the job, and in either of those cases they need to go.

did we work at the same place? My last job would hire desktop/hds reps in bulk, and then fire them the same way. It was nuts. I got close with a few so that was tough, but they just weren't able to keep up with the pace or just burned out.

Verruckt

I'm a simple leader really - if you show the will, desire, and ability to change / adapt / learn new things and retain them, and correct your negative attributes then I will probably have no problem with you.

However there comes a time when someone cannot or will not do the above, and it negatively impacts the company or morale in a department. When that happens and they don't respond to a written reprimand or counseling then they are gone.

I don't think anyone who has worked for me before said I was unfair or that they didn't see it coming. I give you enough rope to hang yourself and enough leeway to do the job how you sit fit as long as it gets done and gets done right.

Mike-Mike

jimmypizzle83 wrote: »

did we work at the same place? My last job would hire desktop/hds reps in bulk, and then fire them the same way. It was nuts. I got close with a few so that was tough, but they just weren't able to keep up with the pace or just burned out.

Here it's not so much bulk, it's more like a steady trickle... normally when they hire someone, someone else is getting fired or promoted