

Ask HN: How to announce your team that someone got fired? - vrkr

Discuss!
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mryan
Uncertainty kills morale very quickly. I think the most important thing is to
be clear about why they were fired, so your well-performing employees know
they are safe.

Of course, if you tell everyone you fired someone because of X, anyone else
who does X will be worried. That may or may not be a good thing.

~~~
vrkr
Yeah, it can be part of the answer. We have different departments so instead
of announcing to everyone, maybe keeping it in the dept instead of agency
wide?

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prehnra
Address it early with people who need to know (direct team and people who work
with this person frequently). Be honest without going into too much detail. If
people press for details you can't or don't feel like sharing, tell them you
can't share.

Don't make up a softer story to cushion it-- this can bite you big time. there
have been companies that have been sued and lost because a manager used the
"Tom left to spend more time with his family" white lie, because it masse
jurors believe that Tom had been fired due to familial status (a no no).

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s_henry_paulson
Anything you say regarding firing an employee may end up being used against
you in court, so it's likely not worth the time and effort trying to plan
something like this unless there are mitigating circumstances that I can not
possibly imagine.

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brudgers
"Today, Bob left us to pursue other opportunities. In this difficult time, I
want to convey my appreciation for the dedication and hard work each of you
brings to our team. Keep up the good work, and thanks for all the fish."

~~~
wamatt
That could seem like the company is unattractive to Bob (and hence could start
wondering more), versus Bob is unattractive to the company.

~~~
dholowiski
There is little to gain (and much to lose) by making it sound like bob was
unattractive to the company, even if he was. This kind of thing is best done
immediately, and kept as short and as detail-free as possible. If there is a
lesson to be learned through bob's leaving, it's best done in a small meeting
between the manager/team lead, and bob's immediate co-workers.

~~~
wamatt
>There is little to gain (and much to lose) by making it sound like bob was
unattractive to the company, even if he was.

You appear to be stating this as a fact.

Also when the headline talked about "getting fired", most would probably
differentiate that from "employee leaving", which usually implies by their own
volition.

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codegeek
Usually in the US, everyone knows when someone gets fired. No need to
announce. We just find out that the person is not there anymore since their
desks are cleaned up secretly or they are walked out right away by security.

~~~
vrkr
I work in a digital marketing company and there is a lot of people that gets
fired and I'm just trying to know if theres a better way they should do it.
They usually send a generic email to everyone (we're around 120 people and I
think it affect the morale of a lot of people

~~~
alexhawdon
You have a 'lot' of people getting fired?

It's good that you're thinking about how announcing team departures might
affect morale, but I'd say it's a bit more important to get to the root of the
issue - why are so many people getting fired?

Either you're hiring the wrong people and/or treating your staff so poorly
that they simply don't care about getting fired (usually people will quit
before they get fired so they don't have to explain it to future employers).
Or perhaps this is some dodgy sales business where you hire a ton of people
and then fire most of them that don't make impossible sales targets. I hope to
god it's not the latter!

~~~
vrkr
I think one of the issue is they don't hire good people and just want to get
shits done quickly. Eventually it fires back and they fires them. The amount
of work is also crazy.

There is no perfect company (and this one is not even close) but I am thinking
that there is a better way to manage all that.

You know the difference just by the way they handle it that the person left in
good terms. When someone is quitting and they announce it, the morale doesn't
seem to be affected.

