Gaurav Gupta's Blog

There’s a lot of gyaan (knowledge) on how to build startups, and entrepreneurs (who usually don’t have a clue on what’s right and what’s wrong), usually tend to fall for it without questioning any of it (almost like religion if you ask me). One of the craziest things I’ve heard though, is this philosophy of hiring quickly and (if they don’t work out the way you expect them to) firing quickly.

Basically, what this means is that entreprenuers shouldn’t think too much when they are hiring because if things don’t work, there’s always an “Undo” button.

@Entrepreneurs, here’s what I feel:

Amongst all this gyaan, it’s easy to forget that the people whom you are “hiring and firing quickly” are also human beings. Remember back in those days when you were an employee somewhere and changing jobs? You were hopeful of a better salary, a better manager, a better office and maybe a better life? Maybe you had to relocate to an entirely new city? Your family wanted to know what’s next for you, so did your spouse and your friends? There were a lot of expectations around it and it was no easy decision.

A new job still means a lot to most people.

If a new employee doesn’t turn out to be a good fit for your organisation, you should learn to take responsibility for that decision too. It was not the employee’s decision alone to join the company, you were a part of the decision as well. You interviewed that person – You should have known what he is capable of what and what he isn’t. And if he wasn’t good enough, you should never have hired him in the first place. You also made a mistake so why should the employee suffer alone?

Firing people is important. By all means do it when you need to. But none of it needs to be traumatic. Give your employee enough heads up so that he can plan his next move. Clear all his pending dues. Celebrate whatever he did for the organisation when he was around and end it with a polite thank you note and handshake.

Firing can be graceful too, if you treat your people like human beings.