If Pilots Crash Planes, Do They Get Fired?

You’re a new supervisor.  Maybe you’ve been brought in from outside the company.  Maybe you’ve been promoted from within.  In any event, you’re now in charge of a department, and you supervise the employees in that department.

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On December 19, I wrote a post about the Mitchell report on baseball and steroids, trying to take an employment law look at this mess.  If you watched 60 Minutes this past Sunday, you saw Mike Wallace interview Roger Clemens about the allegations against him contained in the Mitchell report.

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“Insubordination” has long been an employment term that’s difficult to define.  Ususally, however, it’s definition includes something about not doing what you’re told to do–disobeying an order.  An editorial in the Washington Post tells an employment story that deals squarely with whether a firefighter’s quick decision to disobey an order from his supervisor is grounds for a two-day suspension.

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Let’s say Warren Buffett and Bill Gates engaged former Senator George Mitchell to investigate corporate America to see whether there is a pervasive drug problem among employees.  After two years of investigation, Mitchell reports that the use of illegal drugs is indeed pervasive.  There is reliable information that Buffett, Gates and other big-time executives have known this all along, have conspired with union leaders to limit or even eliminate drug testing in the workplace, and have allowed drugs to be used because they help employees perform at higher levels of productivity.  Earnings are up.  Stock prices are up.  Executives make more money.  Employees make more money.  Consumers are buying products and services at record levels.  When pressed for an explanation,  Buffett, Gates, other corporate executives, labor leaders and employees say what’s good for America’s pasttime is good for corporate America.  

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The art of firing requires focus on a rather strange question:  “What do you do with the poor employee?”  It’s a strange question, because the answer would appear to be obvious.  But how many times do employers end up saying–right before a termination occurs–that the termination should have taken place five years ago . . . 10 years ago . . . 20 years ago.  In other words, the employee was doing a poor job all along, yet nothing was done about it.  When you think about it, the firing of a poor employee should be one of the easiest discharges to pull off.  And when it comes to the art of firing, an important principle is to fire a poor employee quickly. 

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The art of firing includes one of the most familiar words for human resources professionals: documentation.  Employers no longer have the option of documenting personnel matters.  Documentation is expected by the EEOC, other government agencies, judges and juries.  If you don’t have it, there will be a presumption that something is wrong–with you.

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Progressive discipline was, at one point in our history, something that seemed to be used only by employers that had unions.  No more.  All kinds of employers are turning to progressive discipline as a means of making the discharge of employees less problematic.   

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Extra.  Extra.  Read all about it.  The CIA says it destroyed two tapes showing the interrogation of terrorist suspects.

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