Firing an LSP 2 Days Before Christmas

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Today, I had to terminate employment of one of my LSP's that has been having trouble for about a year and I kept giving him chances. I do not allow any vacation time in December as it is a crazy month for us trying to hit year end goals and this year has been very hectic yet this employee called me last Monday to tell me he will not make it into work that day and they he needed the week off for personal reasons and while i usually dont ask for details i told him that i would need to know the reason and he needed to ask for this time off by email. He simply emailed me asking for the time off without giving a good reason why and took it upon himself to not show up for the week even though I did not approve the request. I tried to email, call, and text message him all day Monday and for the rest of the week to no avail. Today, he showed up to work and so I brought him into my office and explained to him how i hate doing this at this time of year but that his disregard to his job has forced me to let him go.

My questions is, even though he was a problematic employee that I had given several chances to, was i wrong for letting him go 2 days before Christmas?
 
Nope. He blatantly disregarded your policy on time off & stone walled you with a BS response. Many would consider terminating effective as of that Monday & not paying him for the rest. It's not a frickin charity...we're in business. Maybe on those days off he could have written a few more policies or talked a customer out of a small pointless claim that could have otherwise pushed you out of profit sharing.

We're human so it's naturally to question the peculiar timing. I agree w/ you.
 
Nope. He blatantly disregarded your policy on time off & stone walled you with a BS response. Many would consider terminating effective as of that Monday & not paying him for the rest. It's not a frickin charity...we're in business. Maybe on those days off he could have written a few more policies or talked a customer out of a small pointless claim that could have otherwise pushed you out of profit sharing.

We're human so it's naturally to question the peculiar timing. I agree w/ you.

Thanks for your input. I agree with you but sometimes my logic can be a bit harsh so I just wanted to confirm that I was not acting to harshly or with haste.
 
Today, I had to terminate employment of one of my LSP's that has been having trouble for about a year and I kept giving him chances. I do not allow any vacation time in December as it is a crazy month for us trying to hit year end goals and this year has been very hectic yet this employee called me last Monday to tell me he will not make it into work that day and they he needed the week off for personal reasons and while i usually dont ask for details i told him that i would need to know the reason and he needed to ask for this time off by email. He simply emailed me asking for the time off without giving a good reason why and took it upon himself to not show up for the week even though I did not approve the request. I tried to email, call, and text message him all day Monday and for the rest of the week to no avail. Today, he showed up to work and so I brought him into my office and explained to him how i hate doing this at this time of year but that his disregard to his job has forced me to let him go.

My questions is, even though he was a problematic employee that I had given several chances to, was i wrong for letting him go 2 days before Christmas?

Absolutely not! You did the right thing. You do not need an employee like that!
 
I had to evict tenants, I guess that after the notice of the hearing, the hearing, the 10 day notice, and the 3 day notice (all starting with them owing me two months of back rent) it managed to land on her teenager daughters birthday. Allegedly I was the jerk for evicting her and her family on her birthday. Between the back rent and damage to the property I am out about $4k, but I evicted a mother with four children (and her boyfriend) which made me the bad guy in that family's book.

Business is business. It sounds like you were more than fair. Ultimately you're responsible for the guy in the mirror and your family. It sounds like if he was half as committed to the guy he sees in the mirror and his family you would have been happy to work with him on it.

I wish you the best of luck finding a new employee; it's amazing how difficult it is to find people willing to work!
 
It's funny how the employee is never the jerk for being undependable at the worst possible time, or the parents who are jerks for getting themselves evicted on their kid's birthday....
 
Just wanted to update this post. The employee I terminated reached back out to me a year later in 2014, we sat down over a beer and he thanked me for firing him because he needed a wake up call in life. He told me that he worked at a couple other offices and realized how good he had it with me and asked to return. I told him he could return but he would start at entry level income and will need to prove to me that he belongs in my team. Fast forward three years later he is one of my most devoted and hardest working team members and we opened a new branch 6 months ago that he manages.
 

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