Letting someone go

So one of the NOT so pleasant aspects of being in a managerial role is having the joy of telling someone they will no longer be employed with your company. On Friday I had one such joy. It went a lot better then I had anticipated but as usual, not a happy experience. The employee has been with the company for more then 7 years and was very loyal, unfortunately the position they were in needed to change and take on new responsibilities which were outside of their skill set. We had offered to move them to another position, the ONLY other position available in the company, a week or so ago and they would retain their same rate of pay, regardless of the fact that the other position was almost $10,000 annually less in salary. They had come back a few days later and said that they would enjoy that job.

I'm still not 100% sure they realized that they basically were giving us no choice but to let them go. In the end we didn't feel we had another option so the option of working notice or a severance pay were given. They notified us this weekend that they would take the pay so we are currently short a person in the accounting division for a few weeks until the new person with the above mentioned skills, can start. And during year end no less! But at least we are moving forward to a more efficient department, especially considering I will be gone for a year in March, I like to know things will run smooth through that period.

But with that all said and done, here's a tip if you ever have to let someone go....check their personnel file and confirm it isn't their birthday! We found out today that the employee we gave notice to on Friday was actually turning 40 that day! 365 days in a year and we pick THAT day? Who would have thought that would happen. Needless to say we feel like jerks but its not like we can say sorry we take it back!