Every job comes with responsibilities you may not like. I encountered the worst part of mine yesterday. I had to let someone go. I've been struggling with it for a long time, knowing that something was going to have to be done but not wanting to do it. Honestly, as bad as it sounds, I have been putting it off on the chance that I DIDN'T get that job. Then it would be someone else's problem. But I got the job, so I had to be the bad guy.
I've given this cat every chance to straighten up. I've talked to him countless times about his job performance. There were times I thought things were getting better, but then he would always revert back to his old ways. He'd been with us for a year, and as I told him yesterday, he was no farther along one year into his employment than he was at one month, and that if things were going to get any better, they would have by now. I did everything I knew to do to try to keep it from coming to this. I've trained and written out S.O.P.'s and given one-on-one job instruction, and I have asked him what else we could do to help. I've gone in on my days off to work with him. I've put more effort into him than most people ever would have. It seems he knew what was supposed to be done, but he just chose not to put the necessary effort into it. I've taken complaints from customers and from his coworkers, and I just couldn't put it off any longer. I couldn't rightfully hold my other employees accountable if I continued to make exceptions and excuses for this guy.
So I did it, it's done, and there's no going back. It sucked, but it was the right thing to do, and sometimes things just suck.
And this really sucked.Labels: work