Why Poor Performers Don't Get Fired

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We have a habitual underachiever at my company. She was so terrible in her original position that she should have been fired, but she is best friends with the VP's daughter, so they made up some BS job for her "assisting" him and she is terrible at that too, but no one can do anything. She is untouchable, which just proves that the VP is an idiot.

Lars of AZ 8:37PM December 02, 2008

Just my two cents here and my view is Canadian based where we don't have "at will employment", but I have found that sometimes there is a perception that nothing is being done about poor performers because most of the managing is taking place behind the scenes confidentially. If a manager is managing properly, they get their ducks in a row before dismissing someone. In my experience, when someone finally gets dismissed, other employees are often shocked because they had no idea that the person had been going through the performance "warnings" process for quite some time.
If you have a Human Resources department, I would strongly suggest getting them involved as soon as you have someone who is not performing properly, even it's just to quickly fill them in that you're going to talk to the employee informally for the first time. They can help you manage the employee to improve, offer advice on proper steps to take, legal issues, etc. Imagine being a Human Resources person and having a manager come to you and say: "I've never spoken to this employee about their performance before but they are a poor performer and I want to dismiss them". What would your first response be? Sure, go ahead? Or...what have you done to help this employee improve and/or to help minimize our legal liability?
However, when poor performance goes on forever, that points to an issue with the manager or management of the company rather than the actual employees. Talking about performance should be a part of your regular worklife, not just once a year in a quick meeting where your manager tells you that you're fabulous and have nothing to work on. (no one is perfect, sorry!) If it isn't part of your regular worklife, you need to suggest that your company invests in some performance management training for both managers and employees.

Just another HR lady... 10:08AM November 29, 2008

I had one bad employee, thankfully, but our (very large) institution made it next to impossible to get rid of poor performing employees. They were terrified of wrongful terminations, did not like to pay out unemployment benefits, and totally put the onus on already overtaxed managers to document to death, micromanage to the detriment of getting work done, and drawing out the process as long as two years, by which time the damage has been done, and most of us managers just gave up, hoping the bad employee would leave. If termination was successful, it would sometimes get really ugly, as the worker built up two years of rage, and security had to be called in more than one case.
Another issue is that mediocre employees are often very wily, and know how to game the system to their advantage. Many have usually been around a long time, flitting from department to department, just barely skating the edges of the permissible, and are keenly aware of their rights. They are like the bad Christmas fruitcake everyone passes around, yet afraid to throw in the garbage.
Seriously, a poor performer almost had to physically assault someone or walk out with a computer in front co-workers to get them fired where I worked. The result? A lot of good workers left in frustration and the mediocre and bad ones stuck around, resulting in a lot of dysfunction in many departments. Did I mention that the underachievers almost always got the same COLA as the high performers, as an added insult?
I agree with AAM here (as always!), but sometimes the situation is more complicated and goes beyond what the immediate supervisor can do. We were almost never backed up by HR or the higher ups, partly for the reasons laid out in this commentary, but also for what I wrote here, especially.

Kat of PA 10:06PM November 25, 2008

From my own experience, I've been in environments where some people are not performing because they simply don't care. I worked in customer service where many people were well educated. Some had marketing, engineering, math degrees, etc. Unfortunately, many of the people found the work to be very demeaning. Many had taken those jobs (in customer service) because they couldn't find anything else. So, some of these "so-called" poor performers are smart people that don't care....like myself. Nobody enjoys doing demeaning work (i.e., talking to customers all day that yell and scream at you.) I once worked with a kid that graduated from the US Air Force Academy and hated his job as a customer service rep. He had a degree in aeronautical engineering or something and couldn't find any work-at least in the private sector-so he had to take a "demeaning" job as a customer service rep. Him and I were both pretty close to getting fired for poor performance because we felt that nobody cared about our impact to the company. We were eventually let go.

of MA 1:26PM November 25, 2008

I would agree with Inna. Even with poor performers, sometimes the people up above don't want to let someone go. They are protected or there is another political reason for keeping someone from the pink slip. Some people are also afraid of wrongful termination. Even the mention of it will send a chilling effect.
(Like to mention that I am a big fan of the blog Ask A Manager. Thank you for your writing, it is very helpful.)

Jeff of AZ 12:12PM November 25, 2008

So what can we do to help poor performers get fired? ;) (I work with two poor performers right now, who are not being fired because their boss does not want to admit she's fallible, i.e, terrible at hiring.)

Rebecca of PA 10:14AM November 25, 2008

I'd like to add to your list:
* they know they haven't documented when they should have
*they've put up with the poor performance for so long it's hard to say it's suddenly unacceptable

J of TX 9:35AM November 25, 2008

your reasons are not always the case. managers are worried that firing someone, means they are not good at picking employees, managers do not want to be judged. Sometimes an employee was recommended from "above" and has a protector. In a lot of cases ( i was a manager before also), the manager above the manager does not approve of letting your poor performing employee go, and you are stuck with that looser.

Inna Glazman of CA 3:49PM November 24, 2008