Terminations Suck
Hey, everybody. I wanted to take a minute to do something that hopefully will be helpful for everyone. One is I wanted to provide a little insight and way in which companies, when they have to make a decision to let a team member go, I’d like to give a little insight into what generally that takes and then what is generally the best response to a situation like that, especially for teams.
It’s Not Just Business
It’s a very deeply personal thing. People say, you know, it’s business, it’s not personal. It is personal because these are people and they’re people that we care about, and they’re people that we spend time with, and they’re people that we have done things with and we have maybe even formed friendships with.
It’s Never An Easy Decision
So when we have a situation, when a team member has to leave, it’s very important that a couple of things be remembered. One is that the people making the decision, most of them do not do it lightly. Good leaders and good business owners and people, they don’t make these decisions just on a whim because they feel like they just want to. They do it with a process. Now, there’s some legal requirements with that in certain states, and then there’s just a human obligation to do it a certain way. The second thing to remember is that when this gets done, there’s going to be a lot of differences of opinion. Depending on the circumstances. It can come across like a lot of different things. I won’t even try to explain all of those. What I would say is that the general response is this.
In most organizations, you should trust your leadership, that they made the decision because it was necessary, not because they wanted to, not because it was a decision they made simply because they felt like they had to. And so if you can trust your leaders in that, it goes a long way. Second thing is that digging for or trying to understand or ask questions that there just may not be answers or the ability to answer is a reality. So our human brains operate this way. In the absence of information, we fill in the gaps. So when you don’t know everything about a situation, it’s tempting to try to conclude or draw conclusions or make assumptions. It’s also very dangerous.
Speak Up But Speak Right (And To The Right Person)
So I would like to recommend that we don’t make assumptions, that we don’t try to fill in the blanks or try to find the drama in a situation. This is a situation that’s already difficult enough for the organization. We do not need to make it worse by trying to gossip about it or talk about it, or try to sort through or figure it out like it’s some kind of mystery. It’s just not helpful and it doesn’t make anyone feel better. So I just wanted to provide a little bit of guidance on this. If you do have questions, you can always reach out to the person responsible, and you can always reach out to the people who made the decision, and you can ask questions. There’s some things they’re going to be able to answer, and there’s some things they’re just not.
Stay Curious Not Critical
And so in every situation, you just want to stay curious. You want to stay open to the possibility there’s things you don’t know, and there may be things you’re never going to know, and that’s got to be okay. If you do have fears or concerns or whatever, then please express those expresses the right way, but express them to the right people as well. So I hope this little tutorial is helpful in how to work through a separation when someone on your team is let go for whatever reason. And there’s other bits of wisdom that could be shared, but these are just a couple of things that will. Will help make the transition smoother and easier in many cases.
