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Has it become more costly to fire bad hires since then? In my mind, a lot of the idiotic behavior in hiring is driven by the fact that it seems to be way more e

Has it become more costly to fire bad hires since then? In my mind, a lot of the idiotic behavior in hiring is driven by the fact that it seems to be way more expensive to hire the wrong person than to hire nobody. The risk of litigation from firing someone seems real to a lot of places I've worked.

mratzloff 11y ago
California has its own special brand of crazy laws, but in a lot of cases bad hires persist because poor managers (most) will do anything they can to avoid the confrontation.
- JBlue42 11y ago
  Like what? It's an at-will state so you can leave without notice and be laid off without notice. It seems that would cover the majority of circumstances and protect both employee and employer, for better or worse.
gozur88 11y ago
Yes, it has. There are more legally protected classes than there were, and the laws were changed to make managers liable personally for wrongful termination. If you're a first level manager at BigCo, the risk of getting sued outweighs the benefit to your career of getting rid of someone who needs to go. I suspect that's why you see healthy companies doing a lot of relatively small layoffs - when your manager tells you a person on your team needs to go, you'll lay off the one you might have already fired in 1980. The result is the same, but it's a lot harder to sue over staff reductions than a firing for cause. Startups are different, of course, because a company with only a handful of employees might go out of business if it has to carry one as dead weight.
Spooky23 11y ago
Usually it's fear of confrontation and laziness. If you're not discriminating against people, it's fine. I've had a few folks that I've had to let go folks, including folks in .gov with union contracts and motivated defenders. It is doable. End of the day, don't be a wuss. Setting up some hunger games "audition" is passive aggressive bs. If you're nervous, hire a contractor and get them on the payroll later. Or just hire the person, and give them a months severance. Problem solved.
- abustamam 11y ago
  That's what my current company did with me. Works really well. Some people are not okay with becoming a contractor first but sometimes that's the way things go.

mratzloff 11y ago

California has its own special brand of crazy laws, but in a lot of cases bad hires persist because poor managers (most) will do anything they can to avoid the confrontation.

JBlue42 11y ago
Like what? It's an at-will state so you can leave without notice and be laid off without notice. It seems that would cover the majority of circumstances and protect both employee and employer, for better or worse.

gozur88 11y ago

Yes, it has. There are more legally protected classes than there were, and the laws were changed to make managers liable personally for wrongful termination. If you're a first level manager at BigCo, the risk of getting sued outweighs the benefit to your career of getting rid of someone who needs to go. I suspect that's why you see healthy companies doing a lot of relatively small layoffs - when your manager tells you a person on your team needs to go, you'll lay off the one you might have already fired in 1980. The result is the same, but it's a lot harder to sue over staff reductions than a firing for cause. Startups are different, of course, because a company with only a handful of employees might go out of business if it has to carry one as dead weight.

Spooky23 11y ago

Usually it's fear of confrontation and laziness. If you're not discriminating against people, it's fine. I've had a few folks that I've had to let go folks, including folks in .gov with union contracts and motivated defenders. It is doable. End of the day, don't be a wuss. Setting up some hunger games "audition" is passive aggressive bs. If you're nervous, hire a contractor and get them on the payroll later. Or just hire the person, and give them a months severance. Problem solved.

abustamam 11y ago
That's what my current company did with me. Works really well. Some people are not okay with becoming a contractor first but sometimes that's the way things go.