Performance Issues
- Jayne Brooks
- Sep 1, 2023
- 3 min read
It’s been another day at the office and an employee was let go today. He had been given clear feedback over the last few months that there were specific performance issues. He had been offered training and a chance to improve. Following the feedback there was some improvement, but it was a little inconsistent. The improvement did pick up a little more in the last few week, however the manager made the decision to fire him due to the lack of effort and commitment demonstrated to improvement from the very first point of feedback. I should point out that the employee was still within their 6 months’ probation period where the standards for process are much less than they are following that point, so the manager is incentivised to make a decision quicky.
In this particular role, there is a learning curve and employees are expected to ask questions and receive training to learn the various aspects of their role. This employee would get their work allocation, hand in what they could do, and dump the rest as well saying they couldn’t do it. There was no attempt to do it, no explanation of what they tried to do, no seeking help or training from another team member to do those tasks, no apparent effort at all. What was key in this case was not that the employee could not do all the assigned tasks, but that they did not show the right attitude in trying to learn them. Following the initial formal feedback, the employee stepped up a little, but still thought it was OK to hand back large chunks of work.
The manager used the initial response of the employee following serious feedback, and the degree of effort applied (or lack of effort) as a sign of performance issues in the future, and how difficult it would continue to be to get him to step up to the degree that was required for the job over time. The manager saw it as a likely uphill battle with this employee and decided it wasn’t worth risking having to go through the process of firing this employee following probation where it would be much more work for the manager. When this man was told of the outcome and fired from the job, his comment was ‘I thought I would have had more time’. When there are performance issues at play, there’s often not a lot of time to address them.
The lesson here, an indeed in many cases I’ve seen, is that following any kind of formal feedback from your manager, you need to show significant progress and you need to do it urgently. You need to make it your top priority in your life and do whatever it takes to improve as much as you can as quickly as you can. Managers are watching your reaction to feedback and making decisions based on it to assess the likely outcome and what does this mean for them. The good news here is that your attitude and reaction to feedback about your performance issues can count for a lot. And it can help buy you more time to address any issues or gaps. Time which you might find really valuable if you are struggling in a job.
Don’t be complacent, and don’t make assumptions that your manager is not the kind of person to go through with firing you. Regardless of what kind of person they are, it is still part of their job to make these decisions and carry them out. It is true that all managers find firing people to be an unpleasant part of their job, and some will do anything to avoid it, but you will not necessarily be able to predict which of those camps your manager sits in. ‘Nice’ managers still need to do their job too in dealing with performance issues.
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