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I think this is the best advice on this thread. If your partner has control over hiring/firing/finances, etc. and will not respect your interests as co-owner th

I think this is the best advice on this thread. If your partner has control over hiring/firing/finances, etc. and will not respect your interests as co-owner then you have a major problem. But it sounds as if your biggest issue is non-performance of a single staff member in a 7-person company. Lack of growth is not really the fault of a single person. And your partner has emotional reasons not to want to fire this guy. Either view the designer as a temporary cost of supporting your partner, or figure out a way to train the guy into greater competence in his role. At a minimum, it sounds like you'll have to be the bearer of bad news if you let him go. Do you have a way to do this and save your partner face? Tip: deal with all conflict with your partner face-to-face instead of over email. That will avoid people reading passive aggressiveness and latent hostility into communications -- both you and him.

electromagnetic 16y ago
> Either view the designer as a temporary cost of supporting your partner, or figure out a way to train the guy into greater competence in his role. At a minimum, it sounds like you'll have to be the bearer of bad news if you let him go. Do you have a way to do this and save your partner face? It would be rather simple to set up a list of skills this guy is going to be required to get versed in to actually execute his job rather than be a resource black hole. If this guy can't get versed then there's clear reasoning to let him go and save your partner face. It's not being cruel or unkind in anyway, it's simply requiring him to do the actual job he was wanted for. You could always be exceptionally mean and just force this guy to quit, but he'd likely do a lot of collateral damage on the way out.