I recently met an executive through LinkedIn and we an absolute gentleman and really could teach me a thing or two about social media. I later found out that this executive was terminated by a company that I’ve been a customer for many years (it’s not in the retirement plan industry).
Someone advised me that the executive was terminated during his vacation, his office belongings were packed away and he only was aware of his termination when he got back. Davey Johnson, former Mets manager was asked by a talk show caller once: “whether you’re hired to be fired?” Maybe you are, but how you treat your employees can say a lot about you. Maybe waiting for this executive to come back from vacation and let him pack up his belongings is the way to go.
You need to treat employees as the human beings they are. They have feelings, they have needs, and you need to manage that effectively. Otherwise, you’ll have a revolving door and that’s not good for business.
If word gets out how badly you treat employees, word gets out. I remember word got out about how a retirement plan provider terminated a salesperson when they were ill. There are countless stories out there like it and if you terminate a top employee for being sick, what does it say about the other plan providers you do business with? They’re seeing how you treat your employees and wonder how you’ll treat them.
I always have a mantra: “don’t be the a**hole.” If it makes you look bad, avoid it.
