Tough topic. Great treatment. This is really solid advice and guidance. Thanks for yet another contribution to our leadership education. The best advice is for the toughest issues.
Firing an employee is easy for unskilled work, but if the position is an licensed electrician the employer may take a year to find someone qualified. I would even go as far to say if the position is a senior electrical engineer. It would take 2 years to find someone of that caliber. masters degree in electrical engineer, 5 years experience, c plus , plus, Linux , cad certifications etc... Good luck firing him and replacing him. The employer is better off working with the problem and resolving the issue at hand with the employee. Like i said if you remove the employee the employer might get screwed because i bet there are only less than 1 percent of the job force that chose electrical engineers in all the usa. The rest of the skilled trade are lawyers,doctors,hvac,plumber,framer,electricians,truck drivers. ect...
I think in almost ALL situations the employer is better off trying to work through the problem with employees. But sometimes...you reach a point where more trying just doesn't work.
I got fired and to show compliance I removed my ID, the keys around my neck and the company credit card before they asked. What happened next was this. There was an unpleasant silence.and I wanted to leave. I got up and while walking down the hall the HR lady asked me not to go. HUH? I was confused. It turned out she wanted a guy to escort me out of the building to my car. In my opinion the escort should have been there during the termination. The walk to my car was kind of long and very unpleasant.