I've had a few people quit DeltaHouse lately. And we have had to replace that talent with other people. And believe me, we look at the throngs of people that we have RIF'd to see if they can fill the need. But there are some employees that we are never bringing back.
EVER.
HotSauce is one of these employees. He used to make widgets... slowly. He missed work for crappy reasons. And he was the first employee that we thought, "Yeah, he's got to go."
After SlimShady and Barrel quit, HotSauce calls me. He's been off work from us for almost a year. He tells me that he's heard that we were looking for people. And that he's (shockingly) available.
I hem and haw, and dance around the issue. And somehow get him off the phone. But I don't insult him. I wonder if I should have.
What would have the harm been if I told the guy, "HotSauce, you just weren't that good when you were here. That's why we won't bring you back?"
PROS: It's honest. It's direct. It gets the point across. It eliminates hope that he might have that he'll work at DeltaHouse again. He'll never call me again.
CONS: He could call TheBoss and tell him what a meanie I was to him; followed by the subsequent visit from TheBoss explaining that I was a meanie and the speech that says that I shouldn't be mean. Kicking a man who's been unemployed for a year while he's down isn't exactly going to the list of Top Ten Best Moment of Being a Human Being in my life. He might come down and shoot me.
How do my HR people handle this situation?
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4 comments:
My motto is that the truth is never enough of a reason to speak it. It must first be nice, then relevant. Then speak away.
That doesn't mean you lie, or even gloss over the bad. But sometimes silence is an exceptable answer.
Okay, now that you know where I stand on that, let's look at your question. Did you do the hiring? Did you supervise? Did you write performance reviews for this guy? Then you do owe him some feedback. (In fact, you owed it to him before when he was giving crappy excuses). That's the "nice" thing to do.
But if not, then let me ask you this: Did this guy ASK for your opinion on making himself more marketable, or just for your help in letting folks know he's avaiable?
Big difference in whether your helpful comments will be heard.
I am pretty honest about evaluations of past performance. They usually know how they did when they last worked here. At first I try to be nice, however, if they get pushy, I just tell them how their supervisor rated them on their last evaluation and where that puts them in our candidate pool. They saw the evaluation, they already know what their rating is. Reminding them of this is never a bad thing. I don't make it personal I just crack open the file and tell them what I see.
We have an "ineligible for rehire" list and everyone who works for us knows about it. If you quit or are fired, you get (or are supposed to get) a paper documentation form about the situation and sign it, clearly on it, it says if you are ineligible for rehire. I have a list that goes back probably 15 years of staff who are not welcome to return. If they call I tell them they are on the ineligible list, if they questions it I can gently remind them (it's all documented).
I haev even had people call me and say "I think I might be on the ineligible list..." it's pretty handy.
HR Underling's approach is a great one; very transparent, honest, prepared.
If you don't have HR Underling's list or you want to debate the larger principle, then where do you go? In earlier days, I was more apt to stay silent. In recent years, I'm more likely to give feedback. If people aren't told the truth, they don't have the full picture, their behavior doesn't change, and they just reinact it in the next job. If I tell them the truth, there's at least a small chance they'll take it to heart. I often ask someone if they truly want to hear feedback. If they say yes, I try to give it to them in an honest, diplomatic yet hopefully not-too-risky way--keeping it behavioral, observable, documented, and job-related. I believe this is the most ethical thing to do in that it feeds the long term development of the person and benefits future employers and customers.
This is where I am--and I understand others might feel very differently. But I do think it's a shame that in our litigious culture, so many of us are terrified into silence by the possibility of being sued for being honest. In our silence, we are probably often dishonest.
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