It’s one thing to have an employee leave; it’s another to be caught off guard. The emotional impact can be demoralizing for the boss as well as other employees. Since other employees and peers of the departing person usually know beforehand, management is further embarrassed by their own shock and surprise.

There usually aren’t a lot of things companies can do to keep turnover from happening. We discuss in other HIRING LINES the reasons why it might be more prominent in business these days than in past decades. But suffice it to say it is going to happen. Different companies have different personalities and attitudes toward turnovers. Many firms expect higher turnover than others, some concentrate on keeping it low. Nonetheless, when unexpected resignations come about they can be at the least distracting and at worst devastating.

Be Prepared
The first line of defense regarding resignations is to be prepared for it at all times. Most managers are devastated by resignations because they don’t expect them. The best preparation is to expect that resignations can happen any time. It will most likely be at the worst time, as resignations are never at good times. The first lesson learned by anyone considering themselves a professional is there are very few people in any organization who are irreplaceable. Most organizations can survive regardless of who comes or goes. Just recognizing that any subordinate could unexpectedly resign at anytime absorbs the shock of when it happens. Being prepared for but not necessarily expecting resignations keeps management in control. Having contingency plans for resignations that are enacted when necessary, promotes confidence in management personnel. Low emotional reactions to resignations and contingency plans when they do occur instills confidence as well as creates a business as usual atmosphere. One mark of a professional is to be prepared for, even expect, surprises.

Openness
Creating an atmosphere of openness on the part of management allows managers to be forewarned of unexpected resignations. This atmosphere may not keep the resignation from happening but will promote the chance to be informed by the resigning employee in plenty of time to find a replacement or be informed by others who may know beforehand of the resignation. Forewarned is forearmed!

We might add that openness does not mean weakness. A manager can be open but strong and firm. Openness requires the freedom of give and take. It does not require a democratic process or atmosphere.

The First Six Months
During the first three to six months of employment of a subordinate, no manager should count on him being a long term employee. In spite of what we say or assume, most new employees spend time evaluating their new company, job, peers, and bosses. The honeymoon lasts one to six months depending on many factors. Then the aspects of any job that become mundane or difficult (why do you think we call it WORK) come to the surface and the newness wears off. Unfortunately few of us see our work as play. Most people don’t and when the elation of a new position, company, etc., wears off reality sets in and parts of the job become work and some people quit their new job right then. The more removed a new position is from what an employee had done before the more likely he is to become quickly disenchanted with his new move and may quit in a very short period of time. The main reason for this is that he is now evaluating a different job function with the feelings and emotions associated with a previous and different career of previous job function. This happens, for instance, with sales people who are hired with no previous sales experience. They may objectively know what goes into sales, but once they experience the refusal and rejection of sales, they may change their minds about selling.

Longevity Can’t Be Predicted
Our experience has been that there is not a lot a company can do to keep the above from happening. Careful interviewing, screening, etc., does keep it from occurring more often and it may happen so rarely. It doesn’t have any impact. The point is to be aware of it’s possible occurrence and don’t count on any new employee as being a long term player for at least six to eight months. This doesn’t mean that they will not contribute. It does mean that their longevity with the firm cannot be predicted. The higher the position the less likely a short term stint will occur. But it happens on vice-president and presidential levels too. Managers from first line to boardrooms and directors just can’t count on their managers staying just because they were recently hired. In fact they should resign themselves to the fact that there is going to be a longer evaluation period on the part of the new employee than by them. We have a tendency to think that once we hire a candidate to fill our vacancy, the vacancy problem is solved. That just may not be so.

Tony Beshara is owner and president of Babich & Associates.   Beshara has been in business since 1973, and he alone averages $2.5 – $4 million per year in billings. If you have any questions about this article, please call (214) 823-9999.

© Tony Beshara, Babich & Associates

You guessed it! Your protégé, best employee, whom you were relying on to get you through the toughest times is resigning.. ..leaving you in a lurch… just when you needed him most! Even if it’s not your star, his leaving has caught you off guard and just when you were beginning to focus on business at hand…. bingo ….you get side winded.

Don’t Take It Personally
Most of the time, your first reaction is to take it personally. You feel mad, angry, cheated, stupid for not seeing it coming, disappointed, dismayed, betrayed, let down, demoralized, etc. (Take is easy, every once in a while someone does this and you are actually glad they are leaving, …saves you from firing them.) Anyone can handle the resignation of an employee who needs to leave before he is fired. It’s the unexpected one by a good employee who puts us in this emotionally devastated state.

It’s not the conditions that make us…it’s the conditions that find out what we are made of! And this is the time to be calm, cool and most of all quiet, reserved, and understanding. Never mind that your mind rushes through thoughts like; “what will my customers think… .what will my boss think… .what will everyone think about my management, …how will this person’s peers see it. …how is it going to effect all of us,” you have to, as Kipling wrote, “Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.”

The Best Action
The best action you can take when someone unexpectedly resigns is to accept, ..yes, accept it! Be shocked, be surprised, even mesmerized if you want to… but accept the resignation. No matter how difficult things are or will be, keeping this person around for any length of time beyond the standard two weeks if necessary, will do nothing but harm. The worst thing you can do is convince him to stay. Once a person mentally leaves your employment they might as well leave physically. We have written a previous HIRING LING addressing all of the reasons why “Buybacks” don’t work. No matter how desperate one might be, no matter how tempting it is to convince someone to stay. ..don’t do it. He has mentally and emotionally left, let him leave physically.

Let’em Go
Once a person even hints at resigning, his tenure should be history. Sometimes employees will hint at resigning by having “honest, ..heart to heart, ..off the record” conversations with their boss. Most of the time this is an attempt to solicit and receive personal attention. Often the employee will see it as a way to express his concerns. Don’t buy it! Running a business on any level or size is not a democracy. We are not equal. The only redeeming value of such a heart to heart, honest, off the record conversation is that it might buy you some time to begin replacing the employee.

No matter what a manager does in a situation like this, he is doomed to lose the employee. If he patches things up by a change of duties or responsibilities for the employee or gives him a raise, etc., he has just been leveraged (i.e., blackmailed) into doing it. If he does nothing the employee will begrudge it, take it personally and within a short period of time look to leave, count on it! At such a hint, good managers often encourage the employee to leave gracefully. It beats the mental and emotional chess game of wondering when the employee will control the situation by resigning. Let’s face it, he’s going to anyway so the manager may as well get control by setting the date. It avoids the hassle of firing, unemployment, etc.

Be Grateful…Get Over It
Accepting two week notice is customary but doesn’t have to be fulfilled. Many times the employee is disgruntled enough to sow seeds of malcontent with the other employees, so it’s best to let the employee leave at the time they give notice. Even if his unhappiness is not overt or obvious, his leaving in most cases is an implied comment about how he feels. There is no reason to run a greater risk of more damage.

There are some instances when the employee is leaving for positive reasons and letting the person complete a two week notice might be reasonable. But keep in mind that protecting one’s job is no longer a motivator for this person. They are a lame duck and often going to be nonproductive since job security is no longer a concern. He can easily be a distraction to everyone nosey or negative.

Be graceful in receiving notice from employees. Get it over with and move on!

Tony Beshara is owner and president of Babich & Associates.   Beshara has been in business since 1973, and he alone averages $2.5 – $4 million per year in billings. If you have any questions about this article, please call (214) 823-9999.

© Tony Beshara, Babich & Associates

Over the years his theory has proven correct. We don’t claim that it is easy or fun to fire someone. But how many of us have fired someone (or made it so difficult on the person that they quit right before they are fired, and after a few hours or days we ask ourselves why we didn’t do it sooner! This president, upon further questioning, revealed that he had had so many situations where he didn’t fire someone soon enough and then gone through the above misery of discovering he should have, that he conditioned himself to avoid the mistake of letting it go on and he fired… when he first got the inkling! Interestingly, this president’s reputation was based on his hiring such good people, that they were eventually promoted etc. In reality he hired more, fired more, but kept more of the best.

It’s Negative
Firing is negative. None of us wants to be fired, so we are reluctant to do it to others. We want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, so we rationalize behavior. Even in the beginning of an employee’s tenure, there are duties, responsibilities, etc., they must do. They either do them or they don’t. If they don’t in the beginning, they won’t later.

After all that screening, interviewing, gut feeling, etc. we just hate to think we made such a mistake. We should admit our mistakes quickly and cut our losses early before they become blunders.

We also rationalize by thinking that although the person we hired has faults, we could end up getting other faults in someone else. So rather than go through the risky process of hiring someone else, we put up with it. Some faults, like continually being late, or chronically absent, affect the job function. Those types of faults can’t be tolerated. Everyone has faults; some make no difference in the day-to-day function of business, others are big indications of how the rest of the job is done. Decide what is objectively tolerable and what is not, and then stick to it!

The Process
The process of firing someone is unpleasant enough, but we are never sure of the shock that will occur throughout the office or the rest of the company. To avoid creating a disruptive furor throughout the firm, we have a tendency to put up with the employee. If that person is performing poorly, the furor is usually there anyway, and people wonder what you as a manager are doing about it. There’s always going to be repercussions no matter what happens. The sooner it is done and over with, the better.

Reasons for firing must be objective and documented. Most firms have policies and procedures on how to do it. Managers should know them BEFORE they undertake the firing process. With objective, fair, documented, informational warnings to the employee, being fired will not come as a shock. Telling an employee that “It’s just not working out” won’t cut it these days. Fair warning and a chance to correct any issues must be given. They must be communicated in an objective, businesslike, unemotional manner, always in writing. Counseling with upper management or even legal counsel may be in order.

Never Friday
Never fire on Friday or before a holiday. When a fired person is off on a weekend or holiday, he has the time to be mad, angry and resentful. If a person is fired on Monday, with the right guidance on the part of the employer, the ex-employee has the business time to take positive action to seek other employment. Even suggest a good recruiter for the employee. Help the ex-employee be proactive in his quest for a new opportunity. Contacting the recruiter beforehand, preparing him for the call from the soon-to-be ex-employee and telling the employee is an excellent way to ease the pain.

Be prepared by having hired someone to fill the position immediately. Managers who have screened and interviewed (from an off-site location) and hired a replacement for the fired employee can ensure a smooth transition, and the disruption over a lost employee on the part of the rest of the firm is subdued or nonexistent.

Tony Beshara is owner and president of Babich & Associates.   Beshara has been in business since 1973, and he alone averages $2.5 – $4 million per year in billings. If you have any questions about this article, please call (214) 823-9999.

© Tony Beshara, Babich & Associates

Once an opening is created, for whatever reason. It is a good business decision to first decide if it is necessary to fill it, and if so, to take steps to fill it immediately. When companies put off immediate interviewing and hiring they can create a major monster.

Resentment
First of all, when someone is not doing a job someone else in the company has to. Even if two or three other people are “sharing” the function, these others aren’t doing their regular duties as well simply because they resent having to do someone else’s work. This perception in the group or department becomes a resentful attitude the longer a position goes unfilled.

If the vacated position has anything to do with customers as in sales or customer service, the absence of an employee is even worse since the clients or customers just won’t get the attention they need. Again, when someone else has to contact and work with these customers there is normally a credibility erosion due to uncertainty on the part of the customer. Temporarily assigned sales or customer service people just can’t provide the psychological comfort level most customers or clients need.

Indecisive Management
Management appears indecisive even down right uncaring and ambivalent the longer a position stays vacant. Not only do peers of such positions feel put upon in having the extra duties they feel management is insensitive in it’s desire to relieve them of the extra burdens. Management appears indecisive ‘when it can’t make up its mind about what to do regarding a vacancy. Good managers do want to fill vacant positions. It’s just that the priority for it is low because other more immediate business issues seem to stare them in the face. Other day to day business issues are easier to work on than filling vacant positions. Since we do those day to day business functions easily and comfortably there is a tendency to avoid interviewing and hiring by putting it off. It is an unattractive duty we don’t do regularly. How enthusiastic can one get over the idea of interviewing and hiring? It’s just not a highly charged gratifying experience so it gets put off until absolutely necessary. Postponing interviewing and hiring makes it more and more difficult to do. This furthers the perception of indecisive management.

Weeds
The longer a position goes unfilled the more the “weeds grow” just like an unattended garden. The vacancy and filling it becomes a “monster.” Most managers believe that it takes no more than two to three weeks to fill a vacancy. The truth is, as we have discussed in other issues of HIRING LINE, (without the use of a professional recruiter), it takes an average of 90 days to fill most mid to upper mid level positions, even when there is an urgency to do it. A professional recruiter can cut that time in more than half but even then, the length of time is greater than most managers perceive. Newton’s law of motion and rest comes to mind. Other business issues, the end of the year, the end of the quarter, holidays, vacations, etc., can all be used as reasons to postpone interviewing and hiring. It’s just a relatively unpleasant risky duty that can be easily postponed by rationalized excuses. Like most problems the longer the solution is put off, the harder it becomes to do. Interviewing becomes elongated over extracted periods of time. Viable candidates take other positions. Interviewing becomes confusing because too few or too many are interviewed over too long a time. Candidates perceive the interviewing company to be indecisive. Other managers, usually ones up the ladder, wonder about indecisiveness too. We have seen situations where the filling of a position was attempted four different times over a period of six months. Believe it or not, everyone in the firm stated that the filling of the vacancy was essential to the running of their business. The monster just grew and grew. The situation became more and more confusing, messy, unorganized, mired, etc. It was finally due to the wrath of the president telling his subordinates that one or all would be fired if the job wasn’t filled quickly.

“Do it now” has got to be the approach to filling any vacancy. Lack of commitment to urgency only allows monsters and weeds to grow.

Tony Beshara is owner and president of Babich & Associates.   Beshara has been in business since 1973, and he alone averages $2.5 – $4 million per year in billings. If you have any questions about this article, please call (214) 823-9999.

© Tony Beshara, Babich & Associates