Re:Fired
by brianpgordon on Saturday March 07, 2015 @12:49AM
(#9161148)
And, on the other hand, when managers are flexible they can be rewarded with loyalty worth many times the value of any lost productivity:
> Erik Wolpaw, a writer at Valve fell ill (diagnosed with ulcerative colitis) in 2004. He knew he couldn’t fulfil his duties at work and made the choice to leave Valve. Erik tried to quit, Gabe refused to accept his resignation and said “Your job is to get better. That is your job description at Valve. So go home to your wife and come back when you are better.” On leaving Erik turned to fellow Valver Chet and said “Well, I guess we know where we’re working for the rest of our lives.”
Re:Fired
by TheOtherHobbes on Saturday March 07, 2015 @07:17AM
(#9161668)
This. I know someone in a similar situation. The company said 'Get better as soon as you can - we'll wait.'
So she did, and they did.
Guess how committed she is to working there now.
If you are terminating employment seemingly for minor things or if you are even sending that message when you fire someone you have no business being in a position to fire someone.
If you work at a company where you believe this is the case, you should leave so you are leaving on your terms and on your timeline.
It's certainly important to make sure your employees understand the real message. At a previous company, lots of folks were fired or "resigned" and a lot of us in the engineering side would comment on it from time to time, and of course worry a little. One day we had a frank conversation with our boss about it, and the thing we didn't quit grok when seeing these firings were that it was sales/marketing - where you can't as easily check out someone's GitHub or have them solve some programming assignments.
What's missing from the equation is what it does to others. Sure one person got fired, bam! easy peasy.
Well not so easy because everyone else in the company witnessed that. It becomes a message to everyone else. "As soon you hit the first bump, or maybe you are sick, or have a family emergency we'll throw you under a bus". Everyone pays attention to that message.
Actions speak louder than words is a cliche, but it is true. Especially because management is used to talk in superlatives and in market-speak. "We are doing great! We are a people's company. We value our employees. We are a meritocracy. We are here to help you grow, blah, blah,...", but then they fire Steve because his code hit a segfault in production twice that week.
Which message will people listen to?