Why doesn't anyone get fired anymore? (employee, analysis, unemployment, employer)

[the_grimace]

Seems like no one gets fired these days. You pretty much have to do something so outlandishly bad at your job to even have a chance of getting fired. I'm talking about stuff like stealing, fraud, physical sexual harassment, but even then employees sometimes don't get fired!

Why are companies so afraid to fire people? I can't even remember the last time I heard about someone getting fired. People essentially get hired and don't have to worry about going anywhere unless they want to pick up themselves and find a new job. Sure, I guess there are layoffs, and the people that should get fired are usually the first to go, but why do we need to wait for a layoff??

I can think of countless people that are terrible at their jobs (and I'm sure you can think of many too), but they never get fired. Bad attitudes, terrible personalities, laziness, errors, unorganized, come in late all the time, forget things all the time, sloppy work, underachievers, etc etc. The list goes on and on. These people NEVER get fired. Companies just give them a light slap on the wrists, and send them right back out to the floor to do more horrible work. Even worse, companies spend thousands of dollars counseling or training these employees which have been lost causes instead of just cutting the rope and hiring somebody better.

I mean, how do companies justify keeping bad employees?? I understand hiring the right people takes time and money, but when you have someone that just is doing a bad job everyday, the company is throwing away money with him. Even if they manage to get their work done just OK, why put up with terrible attitudes or personalities? Terrible attitudes and personalities will quickly bring down the morale and performance of the whole team. Just get rid of the person! But, companies choose to just keep working with bad employees instead of just firing them and getting ones that care enough to do a good job. It just makes no sense to me...

The worst part of all of this is that these people never learn their lesson. People are interesting creatures. Bad actions without "REAL" punishment quickly become "Actions that aren't bad at all because I never get in trouble for doing them!". Guy comes in late for months, gets a quick talking to by supervisors every week about his tardiness, but there's no real consequence. Nothing ever changes, and with this current method it never will! Give the guy two serious warnings and if he still keeps coming late on a third instance then fire his ass. I bet he's not going to be late for the next job he scrounges up.

Anyone want to explain why no one gets fired these days to me? I find it very upsetting to be honest. So many bad employees and companies just keep patting them on the back with "try better next week". With unemployment at record highs in the last several years, better replacements are not hard to find. Fire your bad employees!

P.S. Just to give ONE story of my experience with this... I worked at a company where one of the employees was very pretentious and arrogant. He had a god complex, always trying to say how things should be, acting like he was all knowing, but ironically was a little whiny baby if anyone ever had any critique for him. No one liked him, and grudgingly worked with him when necessary. His name popped up in every performance review when asked about "things that weren't working well or needed improvement". The end result? He worked at the company for 5 years till accepting a position at another company. People were nearly peeing with excitement when they heard he was leaving. But the fact remains... he worked for 5 years at this company with little to no risk of ever getting fired despite everyone disliking him, him bringing down company morale, and him having poor work performance. That's just one specific story, but there's many similar to him!

[statisticsnerd]

What are you talking about? Plenty of people have been fired at the various jobs I've had. In fact, one guy was let go about a week ago at my present job for poor performance.

[andywire]

Just because unemployment is high, it doesn't necessarily mean better employees are available on demand. In many cases, the folks who would make quality replacements are working, and not looking for a job. There's no guarantee that the next person in line looking for work will be any better.

Companies do fire. I'm not sure what you're basing your analysis on. Many times, companies will "lay off" employees in lieu of firing. Maybe they do this now more than before.

Either way, finding good employees always has been a challenge. Just another obstacle.

[MJ7]

it is true you have to either A, try to get fired...or B, have no idea what you are doing (poor performance). if you try and show up on time everyday and complete your tasks you will be fine. i hear the argument that companies dont like to fire because theyll have to pay UEB but im not sure if i believe all that. since just starting at the firm im at now, 4 people have resigned...no one fired. the only stories i hear around the firm is people were fired for lying about time sheets and using company gas cards for their personal vehicles (stealing). before that in the fed, a person was fired for watching porn at lunch...basically the really blatant crap.

[the_grimace]

Let me reiterate in a much less rambling way than my first post.

1. I've personally never even heard of someone getting fired in my industry. (I guess it must happen, but it's never happened where I've worked and I've never heard about it from close colleagues) (I work in software development/tech, so that could be a factor - It's a fairly laid back industry)

2. It appears very hard to get fired. Poor performance is not enough to get fired in my experience. I feel you have a huge safety net once you get hired because it seems companies are very unwilling to fire someone.

3. Layoffs do happen in lieu of firing, but why? Why wait for a layoff? Why put up with terrible employees?

Maybe my industry just has a lot to do with it. I would assume more traditional business like finance, banking, fortune 500s might be much more cutthroat. Even still, getting fired is something that seems very rare to me. I'm trying to figure out if there is some crazy business reason behind it, perhaps like it actually being more time consuming and costly to hire someone than I think. Poor work performance is better than no work performance?

[Ohiogirl81]

My former employer certainly didn't have a problem with it. They fired the founder and CEO a few months ago. They've fired people after they came back from family leave or short term disability.

I was fired two months ago for "performance issues"; the reality was the department hired a new director, and he piled on the work, changed my job description multiple times, and gave me warnings listing errors that were easily refuted in writing. The guy wanted an administrative assistant, and I was not going to be that person. The job listing for my replacement requires 10 years' less experience than I have, and is offering much less money.

Maybe the CEO and I should form our own organization ...

[beera]

People would rather "layoff" than fire someone because when that person goes to find work it's easier for them to say "laid off" than "fired." Ends a lot of potential lawsuits IMO.

[charlygal]

A manager at my office was fired a few months ago. Folks get fired all the time.

[s1alker]

I work in a supermarket. Apart from theft they don't fire anyone because it's naturally a revolving door. I can see someone in a high paid and high responsibility position being canned pretty quickly for negligence. A part time employee making 9 an hour isn't going to stick around too long to begin with.

[The Dissenter]

My small company (< 40 employees) has fired two people in one year for attendance. My company will do everything they can to avoid firing you for performance in terms of warnings, coaching, etc but they place a premium on good attendance.