It’s never pleasant when a manager has to say to an employee, “We have to let you go,” but uttering any of these thoughtless phrases can make it exponentially worse.
Here are four of the worst, courtesy of BusinessWeek:
- “This has nothing to do with your performance.” If it really has nothing to do with performance then, chances are, the employee will probably object to being let go — and this turn of phrase can come back to haunt you in court.
- “You have no one to blame but yourself. You didn’t try hard enough.” It’s one thing to hold an employee accountable, but another thing altogether to completely demoralize the person that’s being let go. Top NBC exec Dick Ebersol provided a good — albeit very public — example of this recently by trashing Conan O’Brien.
- “This is just as hard for me as it is for you.” No comment necessary here; the absurdity of this statement speaks for itself.
- “I know how you feel.” It’s natural for managers to want to sound empathetic, but saying you know what the employee is feeling is presumptuous and just plain wrong.
To see even more examples, click.
Are we missing any? Let us know in the Comments Section.
