If you are or ever have had a leadership role, well then you've probably been in a situation where you've had to terminate the employment of a staff member, either because of a reduction-in-force (RIF) requirement of the corporation or because the individual was either incompetent, lazy or in some cases ethically challenged.
Although most leaders find the process difficult regardless of reason, once it is done, you move on and don't dwell a lot on it. At least you don't think that this ex-employee will come back and try to kill you.
Today in New York, a former "disgruntled" employee tried to do just that (click here to read the story). It made me remember that I had worries-- about down-sized, right-sized, whatever you want to call it-- that potentially some harm might come to me because of the actions taken. And guess what? It isn't just about terminating staff. It can also be when you end a relationship with a supplier or if the sales rep for that supplier isn't cutting it and you ask for a new rep.
Let me give you a few examples from my 20 plus years in corporate. The first termination which I had to do was in the early 90's. He was a part-time staffer, who was not doing his work and often showed up late (if at all). However I also knew that this individual was potentially volatile -- the supervisor whom he reported to was in fact afraid to action a termination so I stepped in. Now I did take precautions, as in having the location in the HR offices and I had arranged for security to stand by to walk him out. So when he was ushered into the office and I did the basic "you're employment is terminated as of today. This envelope will explain what has happened and you will get your final pay within two weeks." Well you know what he did ?(note he was a pretty big and burly guy). He leaned into my face and yelled -- "well you can just F*** off and Die." I then just reiterated my earlier statement and he repeated (again loudly) what he had just said before. Now I don't know where I got the wherewithal or perhaps I potentially could have inflamed the discourse, but I just said "well, I could do that, but even if I did you wouldn't have a job!" Surprisingly this calmed him down and he left with security. But I did have security escort me for several weeks to my car.
Another time was when one of the sales reps from a major company was just not doing his job well -- this was from my perspective and the perspective of the user department in the company. So I contacted the supplier and indicated that we needed to change reps, otherwise the supplier stood to lose a fair amount of business. So the rep was told by his company that he was losing this account and supposedly the supplier had had problems with this rep for a while and took this situation as a reason to fire him. Don't you know the next day he shows up in the Purchasing Office, looking for me. I can a panic call from my admin telling me what was going on and so I alerted Security and at the same time contacted the supplier wanting to know what was going on (that was when I found out they had fired him). This guy bench-pressed 300 lbs and had a part-time job as a bouncer, so my concern and that of others wasn't without reason. By the time Security had made it to the Purchasing Office, he had gotten tired of waiting for me and then stormed into the office of the user department. That is when Security caught up with him and escorted him off the premises...meanwhile the supplier called him and asked him to come to their offices (not sure how brilliant an idea that was) and things settled down. I did however again request an escort -- for a few weeks.
I have had others. Once staffer when told he was being fired for going AWOL for a week gave me a story about hookers and pimps and how he had rigged up his front door so anyone coming in would get shot (I told him that regardless of what had been going on, he could have called so he still didn't have a job). In another situation I had someone terminated for fraud (this was in the US) and Security escorted him to his car but didn't have a record of him driving out -- so they told me to find a meeting room where I should stay instead of my office and that while I was there they would be escorting me out -- but suggested I be extra vigilant to any pickup truck that might follow me when I was off the premises -- REALLY??
I guess this is my long story to get to a short point which is when you are performing actions such as terminating an employee or ending a sales rep or supplier relationship be cognizant of the potential risks to you and your team. I don't mean go out and buy a flak jacket..but we often look at the world too egocentrically and think well if I wouldn't go out and kill a boss or colleague because I got fired nobody else would. You never know the mental health situation of individuals and you never know if there are other things going on in this person's life wherein your action against them might just be the proverbial "straw that breaks the camel's back."
So be aware, be vigilant and don't let yourself become a front page news statistic!
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