Pick Good Friends

So, I fired this guy Friday. There was a moment in time, a division between him not knowing he would be fired and him knowing he was fired, that pains me. I know, I know, it pained him more. I'm sure. His life changed radically in a moment, and I saw the thunderbolt register on his very controlled features. He was a nice guy, polite in the extreme, professional; all of which made it more stomach churningly awful. He was not good at the job and he had been told improvement was necessary. Improvement was not forthcoming. Hence, Friday. Some well meaning folks said that he must have known it was coming, but I disagree. I saw his face in the moment of recognition.

So. My brain is now frothing with rationalizations. It needed to be done. It's for the better. People are strong, he'll be fine. He was not good at the job. Period. He was not going to get better at the job.

Then my brain settled on this: any of my friends, if they were unexpectedly fired, would do just fine in this situation. They would be shocked, they would move on. They would excel. Ahhhhhh... The glory of picking only the finest of people as friends. So, it follows that if No Job is a person of quality, then he will do fine. If he is not a person of quality, well, why would I wish him to be employed by my company?