how to ask to resign instead of being fired by Alison Green on May 8, 2019 A reader writes: I’ve been put on a performance improvement plan after about eight months at my job. My manager says that she doesn’t think I have the skills to perform the job to her standards. After three months on the plan, my manager said she hasn’t seen the improvement she’s been looking for and […] Read the full article →
I’m about to fire an employee — and we just hired her husband by Alison Green on April 10, 2019 A reader writes: One of my staff is about to be fired for grossly inadequate performance. I’m confident that we’re on safe legal ground with the firing, and her performance issues have been documented and addressed with no improvement. However, the complication is that we have just hired her husband to work within the same […] Read the full article →
how do I tell my boss to fire our new hire? by Alison Green on January 24, 2019 A reader writes: I have a coworker who was hired about a month and a half ago. She works very closely with me and I’m unofficially her supervisor – I have done almost 100% of her training, I’m responsible for reviewing her work, and it is expected that she comes to me with questions before […] Read the full article →
can I ask if a coworker will be fired? by Alison Green on May 30, 2018 A reader writes: My coworker, Sue, is painful to deal with. The feeling is shared by generally everyone in our office. In addition to personality issues, she is often tardy to meetings/work, misses deadlines, is unhygienic, etc. Sue has told us that her reviews have been much less than stellar. While I enjoy the work […] Read the full article →
how can I stop panicking every day that I might get fired? by Alison Green on May 16, 2018 A reader writes: I was fired by my first job out of college and only salaried job. I knew I wasn’t doing my best work, was a general 20something mess, and was becoming very disillusioned and unhappy at the company. I don’t know how much was legitimately shady stuff they did or how much was […] Read the full article →
my boss told me to quit or be fired by Alison Green on March 15, 2018 A reader writes: For the last six months, I’ve essentially been on “probation” with my supervisor, determining if this manager role is a good fit for me. His conclusion is that I do not possess the skills necessary for this role. Instead of terminating my employment, they offered me another position – a demotion to […] Read the full article →
why won’t my company fire my terrible coworker? by Alison Green on January 30, 2018 A reader writes: I have a permanent position at a government office and there’s a temp who’s consistently doing sub-par work, and with a terrible attitude to boot. It’s extreme — filing documents and cases as completed without doing them at all to boost her performance numbers, losing checks, leaving difficult work undone or hiding […] Read the full article →
a fired employee still wants to attend the office holiday party by Alison Green on December 22, 2017 A reader writes: Our office recently let an employee go for numerous reasons after several warnings. It for was for minor things such as frequent lateness, too many personal calls and emails on company time, and general friction with other coworkers, to more serious things such as a very sharp decline in his work quality, […] Read the full article →
my employee can’t accept that his performance is bad by Alison Green on November 28, 2017 A reader writes: I’ve put a staff member on to a formal performance improvement plan, but despite me providing feedback and taking multiple approaches to get through to him, he doesn’t seem to be able to grasp just how poorly he is doing. I do want him to succeed and have supported many conversations, participation […] Read the full article →
with teen employees, where’s the line between reprimands and firing? (and a niece weighs in) by Alison Green on July 20, 2017 A reader writes: This is not a question about something I am dealing with, but there was something in the news in my community that is really generating a lot of discussion. I was wondering what you thought about it. A bunch of lifeguards (largely teens) were fired from our community pool. The director of […] Read the full article →