WHEN WORKERS CAN'T BE FIRED


					***


     Elizabeth Figueroa sits in her office, steaming.  Ted Unser has just
given his latest lame excuse for showing up an hour late.  If it were
up to Elizabeth, Ted would have been fired long ago.  But her
government agency's regulations make termination about as likely as
capital punishment--an option Elizabeth sometimes wishes she could
use.


					***

     	When you can't terminate problem employees, you face a
choice: stewing in frustration or looking for positive alternatives.
The second choice is the one that will make you a better supervisor.

     	Even if you're in the increasingly rare position of being able to
fire at will, you'll save time and expense by focusing on gaining
improvements without the threat or fact of termination.  Here's an
approach to fireproof supervision:

	1.  COVER THE BASICS.  First make sure you've exhausted the
standard coaching procedure: establishing clear goals, providing
sufficient training, offering timely feedback, and clarifying the
consequences of both good and bad performance.  If there's still a
chance to push one of these elements further, do it.

     	At the same time, manage your own behavior and feelings by
finding ways to handle the stress of dealing with a troubling
employee.  The more avenues you have for venting frustration--
talking over the situation with a friend away from work, recording
your feelings in a journal, and so on--the more clearly you can focus
on helping improve the situation.  And the better you're able to cope
with stress, the less urgently you'll need to make the source of it
disappear.

	2.  STEP BACK.  If the employee's behavior isn't endangering
the safety of your team, try putting the problem into a temporary
holding pattern.  (If there is a safety problem, make sure your
manager and the personnel department know about it.)  The events
that have made you want to fire him may also have distracted you
from the rest of your team.  Take time out to check on how your
better performers are doing.

     	Stepping back de-escalates the sense of crisis.  It also stops
rewarding the troubling employee with the extra attention she may
like.  Continue to give her necessary supervision, but hold off any
major efforts to influence her behavior for a week or two--however
long it takes to stop seething and start thinking constructively.

	3.  SEEK NEW APPROACHES.  Review the situation with your
manager.  She may have insights into dealing with the employee that
haven't occurred to you.  There may also be institutional alternatives:
some organizations have areas to place workers it's not feasible to
fire.  Yours may, too--or perhaps you can modify the employee's job
to limit his negative potential.

	4.  APPLY POSITIVE POWER.  Peer pressure can supply more
leverage than a one-on-one approach.  Building up your team can
give poor performers something to aspire to--and also create an
atmosphere in which sloppy work habits receive a stigma, not a
shrug, from colleagues.

     	Make a point of emphasizing group goals and achievements.
Thank your team at meetings for everyone's efforts toward topping
quality standards, increasing sales, or whatever.  Solicit and discuss
suggestions for improving teamwork, with an eye to prodding
problem employees toward positive participation.

     	Make sure your good workers are gaining rewards beyond
across-the-board raises and other benefits that even marginal
workers get.  Notes of praise, gift certificates for frozen yogurt, a
night at the local comedy club--use your imagination to reinforce the
top end of your team's performance.

     	Encourage your workers to praise one another conspicuously.
For example, one worker might comment to another, "I don't know
how you keep your cool when things get so hairy around here, but it
sure helps me keep my own act together."  A marginal worker may
take note of her co-workers' support for each other--and decide she
wants to do something to earn their praise, too.

	5.  DRAW THE LINE.  Even if you can't easily fire an employee
who deserves termination, you can still raise the heat on him to
change his behavior or change his job.

     	Start by meeting with him once more to discuss what would
help him perform better.  Be ready to pick up on any practical
suggestions.  But if he doesn't have any, or if he doesn't respond once
his own ideas are implemented, give him a deadline to find a new
job.

    	One or two months should be enough.  Tell him you're
committed after that to applying the most severe discipline you can.
Make it plain that you're prepared to follow through.  Few people
have much stomach for staying where they're clearly not welcome.

     	By remaining calm and firm, you and your people can influence
an ill-fitting employee to find someplace he belongs.  Remember to
keep plenty of your best energy for your best people--and let time
work on your side to bring the unacceptable performer to an
acceptable resolution.

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