Firing People

People don’t talk about getting fired. We come up with euphemisms: “I’m funemployed!”, or “I’m looking for my next journey!” That’s strange, when you think about it, given that it’s a fairly normal event that happens from time to time. But mostly it’s tragic, because unless we start talking about firing and getting fired, we can’t begin to start improving this very real — and often very painful — process.

Transcript

1. F I R I N G P E O P L E
4. dammit that said nothing, holman
6. fire fast! “ ”
7. everybody has stories
8. ?
10. !
11. parallels with quitting
13. Y O U
14. E M P L O Y E R
15. C O W O R K E R
16. BACKSTORY
17. @holman
18. GitHub 2010-2015
19. this talk’s about my story
21. LEAD-UP
22. burnout
23. sabbatical DEC 2014 — FEB 2015 Ɍ
24. sabbatical My preference would be for you to stay at GitHub “ DEC 2014
25. sabbatical When you came back would be totally up to you “ DEC 2014
26. sabbatical Before agreeing to your return […] we need to chat through some things “ FEB 2015
27. Y O U
28. Y O U read the clues
29. Y O U ha, yeah that’s when they started to fire you “
30. conversation with my manager
31. conversation with my manager uh, plus someone in hr
32. conversation immediately became confrontational
33. hr complaint filed formal
34. Y O U
35. Y O U avoid hr
36. Y O U hr exists to protect the company, not you
37. E M P L O Y E R avoid surprises
38. E M P L O Y E R
39. E M P L O Y E R pip performance improvement plan
40. flew to sf to meet that friday
41. FIRED
42. you’re not going to be happy here “
43. Y O U
44. Y O U chill.
45. tall poppy syndrome
46. E M P L O Y E R lockdown
47. E M P L O Y E R roll creds and automate it
48. E M P L O Y E R understand implications
49. E M P L O Y E R understand implications (real-world)
50. E M P L O Y E R refine workflow
52. C O W O R K E R determine the rationale
53. C O W O R K E R gossip
54. E M P L O Y E R truthful be internally
55. E M P L O Y E R mutually agreed “ ”
56. E M P L O Y E R lying poisons the well
57. E M P L O Y E R group firing
58. AFTER
66. The weird part is how much this is about me. This is happening to me right now. I didn't really expect it to feel so intimate, a kind of whoa, this is my experience right now and nobody else's. “
67. down
70. LOOSE ENDS
71. it takes an awful amount of work to stop work
72. immediate logistics
73. healthcare (for loser americans)
74. severance
75. 90 day window
76. 28 hours
77. Y O U writing get things in
78. Y O U stay on-the-record
79. Y O U know a good: lawyer · accountant · financial advisor
80. LIFE AFTER
81. friends
82. friends don’t last
83. C O W O R K E R stay in touch it’s cool to
84. C O W O R K E R on you it’s also kinda
85. C O W O R K E R gossipis tedious
86. alumni
87. alumni continue the culture
88. alumni continue the culture
89. alumni continue the culture
90. alumni continue the culture
91. E M P L O Y E R alumni cultivate your
92. E M P L O Y E R communication have a direct point of
93. E M P L O Y E R recruiters former employees as
95. @HOLMAN