I once had an employee who worked for me for sixteen years. This employee did a very good job. He did almost everything that I could have asked of him. He was a very popular employee around the workplace also. He was all of that, at least for the first twelve years. After that, he seemed to lose his edge, his fire. I'm not really sure what the cause was. Needless to say, I spoke many times with him over the last four years to determine the cause of his drop in performance. He was given every tool he needed or wanted to help get his performance back to where it had been the previous twelve years. But to no avail. Finally, after four years of under-achieving, I let him go.
Now, many people at work chastised me for running off a man who had once been such a great employee. Others were happy with my decision to finally get rid of someone who clearly was being given every chance yet still failing to perform up to expectations. My decision was not based on emotion. If it was, this man would definitely still be under my employ. But performance in the workplace matters. We all know that. None of us get paid to tell funny jokes in the break room.
So what were my reasons for firing this guy? Well, first off, it was accountability. Since I preach performance, I had to to let a non-performer go....even though this man had been revered for the performance of his first twelve years. An employee cannot rest on their laurels of the past. Second, this man was our highest paid employee. When he first started, he was paid a certain sum of money to do a particular job. He agreed to that amount and did a great job. Every so often, I gave him a pay raise with the expectation that his great job performance would continue. His value had increased and so should his compensation. But over the last four years, his value had decreased and it becomes very hard to decrease a person's compensation once it has been given to him. I believe it sends a poor message to the rest of my employees to continue to employ and pay a man who clearly is not going to perform as he once did.
Finally, I want to remind people that this company is bigger than any employee. Great performers are welcome here. In fact, we very much desire you. You will be given every tool you need to succeed. Your achievements will be celebrated. But there will also be accountability. When your performance begins to suffer, I will want to know why. Don't worry, you will be given time to correct your course. However, like this man that I fired, if you don't correct course and your performance is still in decline I will let you go for the future good of the company.
Well, I hope I have explained this situation as clearly as I witnessed it happening. The above story is me speaking in the voice of the University of Texas and my employee was Mack Brown. Sorry folks, I know many of you loved and adored him. But for the future good of the University, it was time.
