Ask HN: Should I fire my underperforming employee?

[throwaway753647]

I own a small software company. Most of the team is great, producing high quality work, clearly working toward the success of the business, etc. One is much more average. He has a decent amount of domain knowledge, but isn't progressing. His abilities and production seem similar now to several years ago, whereas former junior employees have surpassed him. And unlike other members of the team, he is often not reliable. Work slips through the cracks, or consistently takes much longer than it should.

We have had discussions regarding organizational techniques and that sort of thing, to help stay on task and avoid leaving people hanging. Some of these have had some degree of impact, but the general lack of performance compared to everyone else on the team persists. He's not terrible, and he does do decent work at times. He even takes initiative and has some good ideas, but it's often in the form of getting sidetracked on something relatively unimportant while critical tasks wait. And sometimes it seems very much like days are going by without him working on anything at all. (I certainly realize it is possible to spend a long time working out an algorithm or debugging or whatever, with little to show for it. This is different.)

I'm considering letting him go. But I'm torn for a few reasons. He has been with us for a long time now, and there hasn't been any particular egregious thing that seems to warrant that step now in particular. He's also a nice guy, so I would hate to do it. Plus, I'm concerned about the potential effect on team morale (although I'm sure some other developers have noticed the disparity as well).

I'm honestly not sure whether I'm just letting my desire not to hurt the guy color my judgement, and objectively I should clearly let him go, or if it's totally the other way around, and it's only my sociopath CEO side suggesting firing a loyal employee for not being exceptional. What would you do?

[subroutine]

Have you talked to others on your team about this? Perhaps they find him useful in ways that are not directly apparent to you (also if he is helping others it could be slowing progress on his own tasks).

If your team feels similarly though, I think the next move would be to inform this person that you are considering downsizing the team and there may not be room to keep him around. If he was just being lax from a false sense of security due to his tenure maybe this will inspire him to be more productive. At the least it will give him time to prepare for a possible firing.

This must be one of the worst parts of being the boss - having to fire a nice guy.

[throwaway753647]

I haven't talked to others directly about letting him go, since that doesn't seem appropriate or fair. I do know though that people have had to wait on him for things longer than they should, and follow up with him more than should be necessary. So while he does have useful knowledge and insights, I feel like he may be holding others back as much as helping them.

I'm not sure that (essentially) the threat of firing would be the best motivating measure. If I've made the decision it seems more fair to just do it (along with a good severance).

[quuquuquu]

Are you very very profitable? Does everyone really like him?

This situation is compounded by the fact that you are a small group and there's nothing gravely wrong with him.

I know most people feel differently but the only way I'm keeping such an employee is if the money is dripping from the ceiling and everyone loves having him around.

Otherwise I'm sorry msn, it's nothing personal, but times are tough and we have to downsize now.

[throwaway753647]

We are comfortably profitable, but I wouldn't say "very very". That's part of what makes this tricky. If I did let him go, I would want to hire someone else in his place, and would probably end up paying them somewhat more too. So I can't really frame it like we have no choice. (Could lie of course, but I don't want to do that, especially since he'll likely notice when we hire someone new.)

[quuquuquu]

Hmm interesting, yeah I guess life isn't usually very clear cut!

I've been fired before by asshole bosses who pushed me to work extremely hard, deliver excellent results (which I did), and then fired me anyway, you know?

Someone's feelings will have to get hurt- his, or your wallet's.

If nobody will miss him, I would just say to him that there's a lot of change and replanning happening at the business and you need to free up resources for other more crucial positions. Absolutely nothing personal.

[majiq]

I suggest letting the bloke know he's not up to par with your expectations, and then see if his performance gets better. And if it doesn't you can fire him without feeling too bad.