How many of you have ever fired an underling?

[kentauros]

Or is that a "cow-orker"?

[In_The_Wind]

1. Somebody's gotta do it.

[femmocrat]

2. I have always been the underling.

Never been fired, though!

[kentauros]

3. I have been fired, and it was George Carlin's fault!

[unc70]

4. Have fired a few people over the years

Never thought of them as underlings. They were employees -- employees who had repeatedly broken the rules, lied about it to their supervisor, and bragged about it to others outside of work. They then sued for unlawful termination and lost.


I once had to layoff a couple of employees through no fault of their own. That was an awful experience for them and for me.

[kentauros]

5. Well, for the copycat title, underling seemed like the better word.

I've never been in a position where I had to do such things, though I have delegated work to others. Never been in any kind of managerial position.

[OriginalGeek]

6. a cow-erker

would be an udderling.

[worstexever]

7. As a state civil service manager, I have rejected people on probation

Firing someone with permanent status would be really hard. Not impossible under certain circumstances, but really hard.

I've also divorced three husbands. Does that count?

[NightWatcher]

8. I worked at a video rental place in high school and had to fire my girlfriend

We were all crazy, under paid, over tired, over drugged. It was the height of grunge and one of the wildest times of my life. We worked till 1am, ran wild and tried to pass out somewhere before the sun came up.

I told her that the manager made me let her go, but she stayed around the store and we all sold pot from behind the counter just like before.

I miss 1993, the year I graduated high school.

[Xipe Totec]

9. That would be an udder-ling nt

[kentauros]

10. Udderly predictable!

[Chan790]

11. I've had to fire several people over the years.

More than my share, across 4 or 5 different jobs, because other managers would ask me to let people in their departments go for them because I earned a reputation for being good at firing people...in the sense that the terminated employee thanked me on more than one occasion.

It's really not hard to be "good at firing people." It's awkward for you, it sucks for them (you can acknowledge this without undermining your position)...being compassionate, decent about it, flexible but firm about some things (I get that you have people you want to say 'good byes' to or trade information so they can stay in touch; I'm not going to have you escorted from the building (unless you really fucked up...the bank employee that shoved $22,000 down their pants was escorted out of the building...but that was because she still had the money in her panties and because she was under arrest. The police were rather insistent about that escort.)...but you're not going to the files room, back to your desk, to the supply closet or near any of the expensive delicate equipment without an escort.), and hearing them out. (I generally don't have any authority to "unfire you" or your termination was probably overdue...but if you want to explain your side of the story, I'll listen...it's not changing anything, but you'll probably feel better.) I've also written letters of recommendation for people I've fired...it's probably not your fault you're a shitty cash-handler and it doesn't really depreciate the value of other demonstrated skills; I'm just going to be very diplomatic about how I recommend you.