Re: FWD: RE: Troublesome Writers

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

Bill Burns wrote:
> 
> Jane S. writes,
> 
> >the relationship is
> >perhaps best severed for the good of both parties
> >
> >I find that a little arrogant
> 
> I think this is more an assessment of how people can look at the result of
> a firing rather than a reason offered for firing someone. Sort of like,
> "Well, maybe it's all for the better." That's not arrogant. That's making
> lemonade out of lemons. 

No, it's a rationalization at best and a hypocritical lie at worst.
If you're going to fire somebody - or, for that matter, do anything
that might harm someone - you should at least have the guts to admit
what you're doing. Don't sugar-coat it by telling yourself that it's
tough love that will teach the fired person a lesson, or that you
bear the person no animosity when a personality conflict is a reason
for the firing. It's hard enough to do something like firing someone
without complicating matters by pretense. 

If you've decided that the firing is necessary, do it - and if the
necessity makes you squirm, well, that's part of the reason you draw
extra pay as a manager. If you find the decision too distasteful,
don't take on supervisory roles.

I learned this fact the hard way when I was teaching at community
college in the years before Hong Kong was given back to China. Many
Hong Kong students had come to Canada in the hopes of having a bolt
hole. However, to stay in Canada, they had to take a full course
load and retain an acceptable average. Unfortunately, while many did
very well because their study habits were generally superior to the
average North American's, a handful of them simply didn't have the
necessary fluency in English to meet their visa requirements. 

Teaching them first year English, I was put in the position of
either passing them when they didn't deserve to pass (and handing on
the problem to other instructors), or failing them and essentially
kicking them out of the country. I hated the situation, especially
since the immigration department was taking advantage of these
students by raising false hopes, then charging them much more than
citizens or landed immigrants to study in Canada. I felt that I was
doing the government's dirty work. After a couple of semesters of
having students break down in my office, I decided that I wouldn't
teach at community colleges any more and put myself in an impossible
situation.

Since I moved to high tech, I've had to help with a firing a couple
of times. Fortunately, those cases were less ambiguous. In each
case, the people had had several warnings and extra chances before
being fired, and, while I had to psych myself up before telling them
that they were dismissed, I didn't condescend to them by pretending.
I still felt badly about my role, but I would have felt even worse
if I had rationalized or - worst of all - tried to make the person
being fired buy into the decision by telling them that what I was
doing was for everybody's best.


-- 
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"Such furies they devise,
But the Devil's in their lies,
And hath blinded both their eyes,
Stand up now, Diggers, all."
-Anonymous 17th Century, "The Digger's Song"

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