How to Communicate When Firing Someone

It’s no secret that firing someone is one of the hardest tasks we have to do as managers.  

What’s sometimes forgotten is that the conversations we have with the individual are only one part of the job.  How and what we communicate to our teams and our companies is also vital. 

If we don’t communicate outwards, what’s left isn’t an empty space.  Instead, rumour and speculation will rush in to fill the vacuum left by our failure to provide support and explanation.  

Lots of companies also claim to have a culture of transparency and openness, and how you manage a firing can be a very telling sign to your employees as to how true you hold those values.

Fortunately, Sarah Milstein, a VP of Engineering at Convertkit, has just published an outstanding guide on what to consider in these moments so we’ve picked out the main points.

• Brief your peer managers: other managers will get questions from their reports about a firing.  a) you don’t want their reports finding out before they do and b) you want them prepared to respond.  You don’t have to go into a lot of detail, particularly if it’s a large group, but offer enough information for them to be able to reply to questions.

• Write a note for the company/department: if you’re letting someone go, and the day you tell them will be their last day, as soon as you’ve spoken to the individual, it can be worth notifying more widely to provide people with a point of contact if they have any questions.  As Milstein points out, this can be simple: ‘‘Today was Pat’s last day with our company. If you have questions related to the projects they were working on, please reach out to me.”  Again, this will help pause rumours and uncertainty about the departure. 

• Set up a meeting with their teammates: as soon as you’ve had the conversation with the individual, and messaged the company, create a space for their closest teammates to ask you any questions.  If the fired person mistreated a teammate, consider holding individual meetings so that the teammate doesn’t have to process the news in front of others.  Whilst you won’t be able to share all the details, you will be able to offer more clarity and reassurance than they’ll find around the water cooler or in private slack channels.

• If you’re not involved in the firing, brief your team: departures elsewhere in your company can make your own team uncertain about their position, even if they have no reason to be.  Again, even if you can’t share details, you should be able to offer some assurance and perspective.  Reaching out quickly can save a lot of anxiety for your team members.

• If you’re a leader at your company, tell people it’s normal, regrettable, painful, and will happen again: acknowledge that it’s awkward, but necessary to be somewhat secretive about a difficult situation.  Emphasise that decisions are taken after lots of consideration.  Communicate that even though managers can’t discuss the specifics, they can (and should) talk about performance and what’s expected, and encourage regular check-ins (particularly if anyone is uncertain about their own work).