"I don't know what to do. Should I fire this person? Should I give them another chance? I just don't know what to do…"
I've had this conversation with so many people across so many different industries over the years. Why they choose to ask me for advice, I don't know. What I do know is that I should write my answer down.
The conversation is nearly always the same, even though the details seldom are. What's relevant is that an employee has blatantly failed to deliver on their end of the employment contract - showing up and doing what they're paid to do. And yet here is their manager - the person asking me for advice - unsure of what to do. Fire the person and risk disrupting the team? Give the person (yet) another chance to show compassion and mentoring-intent? It's a difficult balancing act that rarely looks or feels graceful.
My advice, ironically, takes the form of a question:
Has your employee irreparably breached your trust in them? Stated differently, can you forgive AND forget what's happened?!
Wait, Kevin, you're probably thinking. They're the ones not doing their jobs. You're asking me if I can forgive and forget? How are MY trust issues the problem?! Well, it's simple, actually.
Imagine for a moment that you are able to compel your employee to change - maybe a little, maybe a lot. Doesn't really matter. Now fast-forward 6 months or 9 months or however far into the future and imagine that they slip-up. Will you go straight to, "Again?!" As in, "they're messing up again. I should have fired them X (days/weeks/months/years) ago?" Because we all know they will eventually mess up again - hey, mistakes are just part of being human.
In that mistakes-were-made future moment, what happens then is decided by your trust issues, not their performance. That problem employee can change - I've seen it happen. But their success is dependent upon your honesty with yourself because, if the trust is irreparably fractured now, you're just delaying the inevitable break that will happen in the future.
Failure to be honest with yourself and your team about your Trust issues, no matter how well-intentioned, simply ensures there will be no happily ever after for you or your problem employee.
So you see, the other person's failure to perform may be the catalyst. But its your honest appraisal of your own tolerance for a breach of trust that must ultimately inform your action, and decide whether they should have a chance to correct their course.
Agree? Disagree? What advice / guidance do you give about problem employees? Hey, that's what the comments are for.