Why Does HR Make It So Hard To Fire People? - Part 1

What It Covers

Manager Tools defends HR departments against manager complaints about difficulty firing employees. The episode argues that 99.9% of managers fail to meet proper termination standards on their first attempt, making HR's resistance justified. Part one covers geographic employment law differences and why managerial incompetence, not HR obstruction, prevents legitimate terminations.

Key Questions Answered

• •Dual Responsibility Standard: Successful performance terminations require two conditions: the employee must fail to meet job requirements AND the manager must have properly documented issues, provided feedback, and held the employee accountable. When managers skip their responsibilities because the work is difficult, HR rightfully blocks termination attempts. Both parties must fulfill their roles for legitimate dismissal.
• •Behavioral Documentation Requirement: Managers must provide objective behavioral evidence across seven work performance categories: quality, quantity, accuracy, timeliness, documentation, communication, and safety. Subjective impressions or feelings are insufficient legal grounds. HR needs concrete examples like missed deadlines, insufficient work volume, or communication failures that both parties can verify, not manager mood-based assessments.
• •Geographic Employment Law Variations: European termination processes can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in separation payments and require 300-400% more effort than US processes. Some countries have worker boards involved in every termination decision. Italy increases taxes dramatically at 50 employees. These geocommercial differences make keeping failed employees financially preferable to termination in many jurisdictions.
• •Hiring-Firing Equivalence Principle: The difficulty level required to fire someone should match the effort invested in hiring them. If termination requires extensive documentation and process, hiring should involve proportional rigor. One Manager Tools leader interviewed an assistant candidate for 50 hours before hiring, recognizing the person would access personal wealth and family communications, demonstrating appropriate hiring thoroughness.
• •Executive Termination Exception: Executives serve at the privilege of the firm and face different termination standards than regular employees. Organizations typically offer compensation packages with nondisclosure agreements when dismissing executives to avoid embarrassment about poor hiring or promotion decisions. This guidance applies only to performance-based terminations of non-executive employees, not theft, harassment, or ethical breaches.