1
do you have the heart?
Posted by poeticnook
on
4/19/2011 12:19:00 PM
On a recent interview for work, I was asked this question: "Do you have the heart to fire people?"
Me, being typically over analytical, gave it a second to churn in my head before I processed a response. In that tiny slice of time, I actually conjured several answers at the top of my mind:
v0.1 heart? what heart? I don't have a heart. period.
v1.0 how can you put heart and fire people in the same sentene? that's so cruel..
v1.1 harharhar of course, I love firing people, off with his head!
v1.2 you mean like burn them? literally?
v1.3 *insert wild laughter here* uhm what was the question?
v1.4 sure, why not? can I do it now? can I? can I?
But of course, thanks to the neatly tied up strings that keep everything in place in my psyche, I said this instead:
Me: Have you seen that movie "Up in the Air" ?
Interviewer: No
Me: Well, it's about this guy whose job is to go fly to different places to fire people. Basically the management in the companies that hire him don't have the courage to deliver the bad news to their employees so they had to outsource someone else to do it.
Anyway, the point is, it's not about having the heart to fire people, it's more about how to tell them that there's something else out there that's more suited to their skills, where they could grow more and excel and be happy and appreciated. The challenge is not about having the guts to say you're fired to someone but rather it's finding a way to say it without making them feel like it's the end of the road, game over, do not pass go, you may now safely turn off your computer.. *insert flat line sound here*
So to answer your question, yes, it's easy to fire people, I can do it if necessary. But more importantly, I can deliver what seems like bad news and turn it into something that could well be the best move for their career at that time.
Me, being typically over analytical, gave it a second to churn in my head before I processed a response. In that tiny slice of time, I actually conjured several answers at the top of my mind:
v0.1 heart? what heart? I don't have a heart. period.
v1.0 how can you put heart and fire people in the same sentene? that's so cruel..
v1.1 harharhar of course, I love firing people, off with his head!
v1.2 you mean like burn them? literally?
v1.3 *insert wild laughter here* uhm what was the question?
v1.4 sure, why not? can I do it now? can I? can I?
But of course, thanks to the neatly tied up strings that keep everything in place in my psyche, I said this instead:
Me: Have you seen that movie "Up in the Air" ?
Interviewer: No
Me: Well, it's about this guy whose job is to go fly to different places to fire people. Basically the management in the companies that hire him don't have the courage to deliver the bad news to their employees so they had to outsource someone else to do it.
Anyway, the point is, it's not about having the heart to fire people, it's more about how to tell them that there's something else out there that's more suited to their skills, where they could grow more and excel and be happy and appreciated. The challenge is not about having the guts to say you're fired to someone but rather it's finding a way to say it without making them feel like it's the end of the road, game over, do not pass go, you may now safely turn off your computer.. *insert flat line sound here*
So to answer your question, yes, it's easy to fire people, I can do it if necessary. But more importantly, I can deliver what seems like bad news and turn it into something that could well be the best move for their career at that time.
