4 ms·

Legitimately curious what alternative you suggest for handling under-performing employees?

• easytiger 12y ago
  Well as an employer it is your responsibility to ensure you have hired someone suitable for the job in the probationary period. Any further dismissals should be subject to a disciplinary policy and breaches of specific targets on multiple occasions as agreed with the employee. Having a hard limit of 5-x% of staff to remove on an annual basis is indicative of either megalomania or a complete failure of hiring policies. It is certainly within the reasonable to assume that on certain occasions all staff will be performing admirably and will not be required to leave; however a hard cut policy would require sacking perfectly fine employees. This is the kind of shit that happened in old wall st brokerages. Further to this European countries employment legislation would render this most likely illegal. I've worked at European start ups that became mid size companies and there were regular culling based almost entirely on the whim of the CEO who didn't like the cut of their jib. Many of these resulted in several very expensive court actions for the companies involved. Furthermore the culture such a policy would foster in the workplace would most likely be completely destructive and demotivating.
  • swimfar 12y ago
    I didn't read "cut the bottom 2-5% of the company for non-excellence" to mean they used a hard limit. It could just be an approximation of the number of "under performers" at the company. And because he said "non-excellence" was the reason, that tells me that they weren't perfectly fine employees (by the company's standards). But it's probably best to wait for an official announcement with more details before criticizing/defending them too much.
  • kraig 12y ago
    spacex isn't a european business
    • argonaut 12y ago
      This is a valid point and I'm disappointed it's been downvoted. To extend it further, there's a reason Elon Musk did not start his companies in Europe.
  • danmaz74 12y ago
    I live in Europe, I think that employees need a certain level of protection, but thinking that you can't fire an employee who stops performing after the probation period (for any reason different from medical ones) in my opinion is completely broken. The hiring process CAN'T be a crystal ball. This is how public administrations work in Italy - it is practically impossible to fire a public worker who was hired with the "due process", it's even difficult to fire them if they get caught stealing in the workplace - and the results are a disaster.
    • easytiger 12y ago
      Did you read what I wrote at all?
  • abritishguy 12y ago
    Where did it say it was a hard limit? You have just made that up.
    • easytiger 12y ago
      The parent comment.
      • abritishguy 12y ago
        No it didn't - there is a big difference between firing people that are under performing and that happens to be x% of the business and simply foring the bottom x%. The comment I had replied to had made the assumption it was the latter which is clearly not a valid assumption.