Managing Your Team through a Termination
Last month, I discussed how a Severance Agreement is indispensable in supporting a healthy transition, both for the benefit of the departing employee and the protection of the organization. This month we turn to the hard part—managing the rest of the team through this difficult moment.
Terminating an employee may be necessary for future organizational success or to resolve an ongoing problem—but that’s not likely to be the initial perspective of remaining team members. Firings disrupt personal relationships and work routines while causing remaining staff to assess the fragility of their own job security and their assumptions about organizational culture and values. This challenge can be hardest for managers who see themselves as staff focused, deemphasizing power differentials while cultivating collaboration and prioritizing staff engagement and development. A sense of betrayal will often be felt on both sides, as staff absorb the unexpected assertion of management prerogative and the manager suddenly stands alone.
While there are relatively easy ways—particularly the severance agreement—to address the needs of the person leaving and fears about risks to the organization, your options for guiding the remaining team members through this moment are very limited. And just to pile on:
You’re the bad guy here. Whether or not the fired colleague “deserved” it, you’re the one who made the decision. Fair or not, this perception erodes your ability to guide the team, at least in the moment.
You don’t control the narrative. There’s very little that’s appropriate for you to share about the termination. Legal and ethical considerations mean that you cannot tell your side of the story. And the fired employee might have a LOT to say.
Your team craves reassurance that you can’t provide. It may be a blessing that you can’t say too much, because there may not be much good to say. Staff will want to distinguish themselves from the employee that was terminated in order to feel safer. Because you can’t share, you can’t help.
Instability rarely brings out the best in people, and removing a staff person from a team shakes the ground under everyone’s feet. Even your most reliable performers are likely to need some time to fully recover their bearings.
Despite these obstacles, you have opportunities to influence your team’s transition before, by promoting resilience; during, by handling the termination with grace and professionalism; and after, by meeting your team members where they are and guiding them forward. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
Before. . .
Your best tool in guiding your team beyond the firing is your track record. Team members’ ability to absorb the termination—their resilience—is directly related to whether they can make sense of it in the context of established expectations and organizational culture. To the extent you’ve established assumptions of fairness, relationships that afford you the benefit of the doubt and confidence in your integrity, then you’re team will be better positioned to withstand this shock.
Fairness. Terminations that are seen as fair are far less traumatic than those that are viewed as capricious. But how can your team possibly know whether it was fair when you can’t explain your reasoning and share your evidence ? They can’t. All they can do is infer from their own experiences:
Expectations. Does each team member know what’s expected them? Are there clear job descriptions and behavior norms? Does everyone know where the lines are that are not to be crossed?
Accountability. Are performance issues addressed promptly and effectively? Is constructive feedback regularly provided? Are people held responsible for meeting expectations or is enforcement somewhat arbitrary?
Processes. Job descriptions, performance reviews, performance improvement plans are valuable for many reasons, not the least of which is that they signal that fairness is taken seriously.
Strong Relationships. The more you have cultivated relationships with each of your team members and the more they know how committed you are to the success of each one of them as individuals, the more likely you are to receive the benefit of the doubt.
Integrity. If team members trust you to tell them the truth, then they are less likely to infer bad intent when you decline to discuss certain things with them.
Of course, the very last reason for doing any of this is in expectation of one day firing a team member. The take-away should be that effective management over the long term both supports the team’s ability to perform effectively and its capacity to weather unexpected challenges, including the termination of a colleague.
During. . .
To whatever degree you’ve laid a foundation for staff resilience prior to the termination, the manner in which you conduct the firing can greatly influence how team members react. Keep in mind that if they feel they need to pick a side, remaining staff are unlikely to side with you. So try to avoid putting them in that position—or be prepared to weather the blow.
Confidentiality. For legal and ethical reasons, HR issues must always be treated as confidential. Confidentiality also serves to limit the professional, emotional, financial and other difficulties that the firing may cause the fired team member. Doing so may frustrate remaining staff’s desire for information, but of course this is how they would expect to be treated if they were the person being fired. Confidentiality is the high road. Take it.
Assume everyone knows. Others, including the departing employee, may not share your commitment to confidentiality. So anticipate that every detail of the firing will become public. Act and communicate accordingly.
Don’t dispute/don’t engage. Inevitably, lots of information will be out there about the termination, much of it slanted or just wrong. Try to limit any rebuttals to some version of “I can only say that there are two sides to this and I’m sorry that I’m not able to share mine.”
Be as gentle as possible. While physical safety comes first, the presence of security personnel can exacerbate the situation, as can immediately escorting someone to the building. Assess your risks and take appropriate action, but “erring on the side of caution” carries its own risks.
Communicate. How you communicate is just as important as the limited information you’re able to pass along. Do your best to project calm and resolve. The underlying messages are that you care about the departing team member, that you appreciate that this will be difficult on the team, and that we’ll get through it.
Sequence notification of the termination to avoid confusion and communicate respect and empathy. In general, start with those who work most closely with the fired team member and then work your way outwards.
Provide as kind a send-off as you can manage. If you have to stretch truth in favor of kindness, that’s usually the way to go.
Ideally, the departing employee will communicate the message themselves in writing. This helps transition relationships (“Here’s my personal email address, please stay in touch”) while signaling some degree of amicability, which means that remaining staff may not need to choose sides. Of course, you should review the communication before it goes out.
Generally, this will not be the moment to talk in detail about next steps. But set an expectation for when that will happen (over the next day or two; after consulting with the team, etc.). If there are immediate work related impacts, address these with those who will need to step in.
After. . .
For you, the firing may feel like the culmination of events weeks or months in the making. Your team, on the other hand, can only begin processing the termination after it happens. If you’ve effectively laid the groundwork both before and during the firing, then you can hope to move through the aftermath relatively smoothly. If not, it’s more likely to be a bumpy ride.
Be present. Try to avoid traveling or taking leave in the immediate wake of a firing. It’s likely to be uncomfortable, but as the manager you need to be there.
Give them some space. Don’t be too present. There may be some negative emotion coming your way, too, whether because people don’t understand your decision, don’t agree with it or are adjusting to the fact that you made it. Try not to take it too personally.
Explain what’s going to happen next. Who’s taking over what pieces of work? Are you filling the vacant position? What’s the timeline? When you are unable to answer a question, say so. And then set an expectation for when you will have an answer.
If the firing reflects an organizational shift—whether in terms of new expectations, greater accountability, structure or priorities—be clear about what’s changing. Firing someone prior to articulating or clarifying expectations isn’t going to contribute to anyone’s impression of fairness. But if that’s what happened, then try to make sure it never happens again.
The whole reason for firing someone is that their ongoing employment is an obstacle to the future success of the organization. From that perspective, remaining team members are not simply bystanders; their ability to move ahead successfully should be your primary concern.