Firing someone, even if it is the best thing for all parties is awful. It feels terrible. Even if you knew it was coming, and even if it wasn’t a surprise to your employee, it still feels totally horrendous. You have a pit in your stomach, and your overall feeling is enough to make you want to hire someone as fast as you possibly can to fill that hole.
Don’t.
Why not, you ask? “I need to fill this seat Beth!”, said a panicky client. Because that is when you make hiring mistakes, when you hire from a panic place rather than a place of reason and overall calm.
According to Robert Plotkin, who wrote How to Prevent Internal Bar Theft, “Hiring the wrong bartender can be staggering. It’s better to operate short-handed for a period of time and rely on your existing staff to cover the bar than hiring someone unqualified or inappropriate for the establishment. It will be more advantageous in the long-run to delay hiring another bartender until the right candidate can be found.”
In addition to Robert’s thoughts on the topic, Warren Buffet says “Money flows from the impatient to the patient.” I believe this to be true in any area of life. In any situation where big decisions must be made, we all operate and make decisions better from a place of measured calm than from panicked overthinking.
So, when you have the unfortunate experience of firing someone, I want you to pause. Take a big deep breath. Let the emotions settle down. Call a team meeting and rally the troops. Let everyone know that it will be okay, and that you are committed to hiring the very best candidate you possibly can. And, then wait at least two weeks before you do anything.
Our instinct as humans is to replace a person in our lives as fast as we possibly can. In the end, learning why that person no longer serves you and your organization is the better path, and proceeding from a place of calm will serve you best in the end.