Once in a while in HR, we have to make ridiculous decisions to terminate an employee.
Maybe it’s a well liked, popular employee, or an employee with long tenure close to retirement, or an employee who did something supporting their beliefs but still wrong, etc. Those kinds of decisions come in all shapes and sizes.
But what about firing an employee who was abused by a spouse because the company feared the abuser might come to the place of employment? Yes, HR terminated the abused employee to protect all the rest of the employees.
What do you think about that call, HR friends?
Compromising your true beliefs
I have had to fire some employees for reasons I did not support in the least, but I was directed by a senior executive to do it. Period. I had two choices:
- Fire the employee; or,
- Lose my own job — and someone else would fire the employee.
While those few and far between times don’t sit well with any HR Pro, most of us are put in that type of situation at least a few times in our career. Do I become a martyr and quit to show my support for this employee, or save myself?
I’ve always decided to save myself. Yes, family to feed, mortgage to pay – does it really matter what the reasons are? Either way, I’ve had to compromise my true beliefs and do something I didn’t believe in.
As Paul Smith says – “Welcome to the Occupation!” (Great HR blogger, BTW. Check him out)
So, what about our example above with your employee who is being abused and you fire her because you don’t want her crazy husband showing up at your office with a gun?! What did you decide? Let this poor woman fend for herself, or are you going to help her and put all of your employees at risk?
I bet a fair amount of you are not going to fire her!
Would you fire a victim of domestic violence?
What if I told you she was an elementary school teacher and her place of employment was surrounding 400 children? Now what do you do?
This is from Gawker, and a real-life example from San Diego, CA:
Earlier this year, Carie Charlesworth and her four children were removed from Holy Trinity School after she gathered up the courage to disclosed her struggles with domestic violence to the school’s principal. After what the second-grade teacher’s called “a very bad weekend with [her ex-husband],” the unidentified man arrived outside the school, prompting a lockdown.
She was subsequently put on “an indefinite leave,” and then formally terminated three months later.”
Of course the employer wouldn’t comment on publicly about personnel issues. (I love that HR statement!)
Want to know why women don’t come forward about domestic violence issues? It only takes a few examples like this.
This is one HR firing I don’t think I could have done because — losing my job or not – I’m positive my wife and kids would have understood.
I understand you need to protect all of those children, but you need to try some other things before throwing out an employee and four of those kids on to the street to fend for themselves.
This was originally published on Tim Sackett’s blog, The Tim Sackett Project.