[Mick]

One of the more terrifying experiences in my professional life was during my first year out of Stanford. I was the production manager on a factory floor in East LA. The assistant foreman on the second shift, who allegedly had "connections" and was rumored to have killed someone in Mexico, punched someone. I got the lucky assignment to fire him. His hands were literally shaking with a mix of rage and remorse as I told him he was gone. I watched my mirrors very closely for the next month or so. . . .

I had that same experience with the first person I ever fired. My boss met him, demanded that I hire him. I met the guy, told the boss that I found him objectionable in every conceivable way and didn't want to work with him. Boss literally says "It's not your job to like him, it's your job to hire him." I hired Jeff and he failed quickly and spectacularly, offending numerous clients and potential clients.

He was a big man, very much in shape, and had about fifty pounds on me. He drove a brobdingnagian, fast motorcycle. I told our office manager that I had to fire him and I was more than a little nervous, and that I thought the odds were that he would turn violent. The OM told me that there was a simple trick to getting people to behave when they were getting fired.  Just watch, says she, a miniscule type.

We call Jeff into the conference room, and our OM had his final paycheck ready and about two feet in front of her on the table. She tells him it's not working out and it's time to part ways.  He starts to snarl and gets up out of his chair...at which point our OM puts her hand on his final check and slowly pulls it back to her. He calmed down instantly and we got through the rest of it without any issues.

[Mick]

One of the more terrifying experiences in my professional life was during my first year out of Stanford. I was the production manager on a factory floor in East LA. The assistant foreman on the second shift, who allegedly had "connections" and was rumored to have killed someone in Mexico, punched someone. I got the lucky assignment to fire him. His hands were literally shaking with a mix of rage and remorse as I told him he was gone. I watched my mirrors very closely for the next month or so. . . .

I had that same experience with the first person I ever fired. My boss met him, demanded that I hire him. I met the guy, told the boss that I found him objectionable in every conceivable way and didn't want to work with him. Boss literally says "It's not your job to like him, it's your job to hire him." I hired Jeff and he failed quickly and spectacularly, offending numerous clients and potential clients.

He was a big man, very much in shape, and had about fifty pounds on me. He drove a brobdingnagian, fast motorcycle. I told our office manager that I had to fire him and I was more than a little nervous, and that I thought the odds were that he would turn violent. The OM told me that there was a simple trick to getting people to behave when they were getting fired.  Just watch, says she, a miniscule type.

We call Jeff into the conference room, and our OM had his final paycheck ready and about two feet in front of her on the table. She tells him it's not working out and it's time to part ways.  He starts to snarl and gets up out of his chair...at which point our OM puts her hand on his final check and slowly pulls it back to her. He calmed down instantly and we got through the rest of it without any issues.