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Firing for mistakes can make sense in the context of a small company that has to pay enough to rectify the mistake that it significantly impacts the budget. If

Firing for mistakes can make sense in the context of a small company that has to pay enough to rectify the mistake that it significantly impacts the budget. If this cost needs to be recouped, it is only fair that it be recouped from the salary preserved by terminating the responsible party. We're not all megacorps. This is going to depend on the severity, cost, budget, importance of the role filled, etc., but I think it's probably one of the only semi-plausible justifications for firing based on things that do not reflect a serious and ongoing competency or legal issue.

morkalot 10y ago
That's nonsense. A mistake is made, and a material loss has been incurred. This sucks. Been there, done that, didn't get the t-shirt because we couldn't afford such a luxury. I watched my annual bonus evaporate because of somebody else's cock-up. But there's no reason to believe that firing the mistake-maker is the best move. Maybe the right move is to find money somewhere else (cutting a bunch of discretionary, pushing some expenses into the future, reducing some investment), or maybe it's to ask a few people to take pay cuts in return for some deferred comp. Or maybe it's to lay-off somebody who didn't do anything wrong, but who provides less marginal value to the company. But it'd be one hell of a coincidence if, after an honest to god mistake, the best next action was to fire the person who made the mistake. After all, if they were in a position to screw your company that hard, they almost certainly had a history of being talented, highly valued, and trustworthy. If they weren't good, you wouldn't have put them in a place where failure is so devastating.
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  >But there's no reason to believe that firing the mistake-maker is the best move. Yeah, I'm not saying it necessarily or even probably is. I'm saying that reality sometimes makes it so that we have to make these compromises.
trprog 10y ago
>Firing for mistakes can make sense in the context of a small company that has to pay enough to rectify the mistake that it significantly impacts the budget. If this cost needs to be recouped, it is only fair that it be recouped from the salary preserved by terminating the responsible party. What was the fired person doing? Presumably they were performing required work otherwise the company wouldn't have been paying them in the first place. That means you know need to pay to replace which costs more than keeping an existing employee. Or you could divide their responsibilities among the remaining employees but if you thought you could do that you would have already laid them off without waiting for them to mess something up.

morkalot 10y ago

That's nonsense. A mistake is made, and a material loss has been incurred. This sucks. Been there, done that, didn't get the t-shirt because we couldn't afford such a luxury. I watched my annual bonus evaporate because of somebody else's cock-up. But there's no reason to believe that firing the mistake-maker is the best move. Maybe the right move is to find money somewhere else (cutting a bunch of discretionary, pushing some expenses into the future, reducing some investment), or maybe it's to ask a few people to take pay cuts in return for some deferred comp. Or maybe it's to lay-off somebody who didn't do anything wrong, but who provides less marginal value to the company. But it'd be one hell of a coincidence if, after an honest to god mistake, the best next action was to fire the person who made the mistake. After all, if they were in a position to screw your company that hard, they almost certainly had a history of being talented, highly valued, and trustworthy. If they weren't good, you wouldn't have put them in a place where failure is so devastating.

cookiecaper 10y ago
>But there's no reason to believe that firing the mistake-maker is the best move. Yeah, I'm not saying it necessarily or even probably is. I'm saying that reality sometimes makes it so that we have to make these compromises.

trprog 10y ago

>Firing for mistakes can make sense in the context of a small company that has to pay enough to rectify the mistake that it significantly impacts the budget. If this cost needs to be recouped, it is only fair that it be recouped from the salary preserved by terminating the responsible party. What was the fired person doing? Presumably they were performing required work otherwise the company wouldn't have been paying them in the first place. That means you know need to pay to replace which costs more than keeping an existing employee. Or you could divide their responsibilities among the remaining employees but if you thought you could do that you would have already laid them off without waiting for them to mess something up.