Friday Firings are for Wimps

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Friday Firings Are For Wimps!
by Richard S Deems, PhD Author, I Have To Fire Someone!

Firing somebody on Friday afternoon is for managers who want to take the easy way out. It's for wimps. For people who don't want to deal with the termination. Or the exiting person. Or those who remain. Unless it's for gross misconduct, Friday firings do more harm than good.

The best time to conduct terminations is early in the week and early in the day. That applies to terminations because of reorganization, job elimination, or even performance. Why? Because when you fire on Fridays you loose control of the situation and you show a lack of real care for your employees. You also increase the chances for litigation.

There are two basic guidelines for any termination: care, and control. You do everything you can to show that the company honestly cares for its people, even those who exit. And, you do everything you can to stay in control of the termination process. Here's what's involved.

Show That You Care.

For some reason, that first weekend of being unemployed is the toughest for people who've just been fired. There's extra time on their hands. They know there's no place to go on Monday morning. Friends aren't at work so they have extra time to stop by or call and talk about what a rotten deal it was. Some friend or neighbor will usually say, "Gee, why don't you talk to my cousin the attorney?" Anger and frustration tends to increase.

"I didn't want to get out of bed Saturday morning," reports Betsy Latko, who lost her job as marketing manager for a group of fast food operations. "The kids had places to go but all I could think of was what was I going to do on Monday morning. I would have dealt with my anger more effectively," Latko adds, "if I could have had time to think things through before the weekend."

People who've been fired on Friday afternoon consistently report they have no real time to prepare for the first weekend. They go home, tell the family, and wham, it's Saturday morning. But it doesn't have to be that way.

When you terminate earlier in the week, and earlier in the day, you show that you care about employees. You're giving people time to begin the adjustment before the first weekend Employers of choice provide some form of job transition assistance, and when a termination is conducted early in the week the outplacement specialists have time to begin their work. By the first weekend the exited employee is already thinking about the future, and best skills, and next challenges - not about talking with an attorney.

Stay In Control.

When you fire late on Friday afternoon you lose control of the workplace response and have no way to deal with questions or reactions by other employees. Remember, that even the meanest SOB has friends in the workplace, and they'll want to know why their friend got fired and how could the company do something like this and on and on.

Firing on Fridays means employees have little time to talk among themselves before the end of the work week. Instead, they'll talk on the phone that night and over the entire weekend. Come Monday morning you may have an angry employee group or you may not. Instead, when you fire early in the week you can answer questions and if there's any negative reaction by co-workers you can deal with it immediately — before it has an impact on productivity.

When you fire early in the week and early in the day there is time for the person to begin adjusting to the termination before the first long weekend arrives. It shows that the organization cares about employees, even those who must exit for whatever reason. When you fire early in the week and early in the day you can deal with any negative reactions by anybody within the workforce before there is any major problem. You stay in control of the entire termination process.

If you don't want to have to deal with the exiting person's reactions or the responses by remaining employees, then go ahead and fire on Fridays. But it's for wimps.

Dr Deems is author of three books on the termination process including American Media's I Have To Fire Someone! Deems' approach to termination is the basis for AMI's training video Care & Control: A Better Approach To Termination. Deems' email address is rsdeems@worklifedesign.com.

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