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Tell me about a time you fired someone.
"Tell
me about a time you fired someone."
Firing someone is a difficult task. Usually you will not be asked this question
unless it is for a management position. You should emphasize a couple of key
things when you answer this question. First, you should be very professional
about firing someone. Second, you should mention the procedures you took so the
action of firing is justified. I'll give an example for someone who has never
fired someone and an example for having fired someone.
Short Answers
"In
my last position, I had four people reporting to me. One of my direct reports
failed to show up on time, complete assignments, and really didn't care about
the work. I tried to encourage the employee, assign different types of work to
him, and even sat down and showed him how to do things. After 2 months of
trying, I had to let him go."
"Our
company was down sizing and I had to let two people go. It's easier when a
person does a terrible job, but if everyone is doing there job, it's more
difficult. I had to select the bottom two performers and explained why they
were being let go."
Long Answers
"During
my second year as a manager, I had to fire one of my directs. I can't say it
was a difficult task because not only did he not do his job well, he didn't
want to try. Initially, we put him on probation monitoring his work, we tried
to give him different types of work that he might do better at, and we even
assigned a mentor to him. However, even through all this, he was a weak
performer. I consulted with other management members and we all agreed it was
best for the company to let him go. I got together with an HR representative
and told him that he no longer has a job here. He wasn't surprised at all. He
just picked up his things and left."
"I've
never had to fire somebody yet. I believe that a manager should mentor and lead
all team members to be a solid performer. But I know that there are some people
who can't or won't perform despite management's best effort. So in that case, I
would have to let someone go in a professional manner following the procedures
set by the company."
Both of these are good answers. They mention that a manager should take actions
to make the worker better, but sometimes turning something bad to something
good is impossible, so the only action is to fire someone. The person with
experience outlines the steps taken. For example, the probation, assigning
different work, providing a mentor, etc. Then in the end he was fired. The
second example shows despite experience, that he or she would fire someone in a
professional manner following procedure. |