Toughest Day of Work. Ever.
Today was a difficult day at work. I needed to make some changes to how my staff was structured. As part of the changes, I had to tell someone that they no longer had a job at my company. The first time I have ever had to have that conversation with someone. Hopefully, it's the last time for a long time.
The individual I let go was not entirely qualified for her current role. I hired her after interviewing some internal candidates for a job opening a little over a year ago. At the time, her department was getting downsized and she would have lost her job at that point if I didn't hire her. With her current role expanding to include more work and responsibility, I really needed someone with an actuarial background in that job. However, there is the personal side to the whole situation. You never want to have to take someone's job away (unless they do something that warrants getting fired). She has a family to feed, and I am definitely adding a lot of stress to her life right now.
When I made the tough decision a few months ago to take this course, I insisted that I be allowed to "warn" the individual, even though this is not necessarily standard procedure. I told her a few months ago that her current job would be consolidated across the rest of the team later in the summer and that I would support her any way possible with an internal job search. Unfortunately, she was not able to find something and I ran out of time to stall.
While the termination notice was not much of a surprise for her, it was still not a pleasant experience delivering the message today. My boss offered to deliver the notice instead, but I felt that I had to do this since it was ultimately my decision. I felt sick afterwards and just spent the rest of the afternoon filing stuff away and cleaning out my e-mail since I could not focus on actual work. I don't know how senior management can deliver this type of message on a fairly regular basis in the working world. It's definitely not fun.
I've probably said too much already, so I should stop now. Needless to say, it's been a very difficult day. I've been dreading today for a while now. At least it is over.
The individual I let go was not entirely qualified for her current role. I hired her after interviewing some internal candidates for a job opening a little over a year ago. At the time, her department was getting downsized and she would have lost her job at that point if I didn't hire her. With her current role expanding to include more work and responsibility, I really needed someone with an actuarial background in that job. However, there is the personal side to the whole situation. You never want to have to take someone's job away (unless they do something that warrants getting fired). She has a family to feed, and I am definitely adding a lot of stress to her life right now.
When I made the tough decision a few months ago to take this course, I insisted that I be allowed to "warn" the individual, even though this is not necessarily standard procedure. I told her a few months ago that her current job would be consolidated across the rest of the team later in the summer and that I would support her any way possible with an internal job search. Unfortunately, she was not able to find something and I ran out of time to stall.
While the termination notice was not much of a surprise for her, it was still not a pleasant experience delivering the message today. My boss offered to deliver the notice instead, but I felt that I had to do this since it was ultimately my decision. I felt sick afterwards and just spent the rest of the afternoon filing stuff away and cleaning out my e-mail since I could not focus on actual work. I don't know how senior management can deliver this type of message on a fairly regular basis in the working world. It's definitely not fun.
I've probably said too much already, so I should stop now. Needless to say, it's been a very difficult day. I've been dreading today for a while now. At least it is over.
posted by GaryGinew at 11:35 PM
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