I hate to fire people. I have to do it from time to time, and I always feel shitty after it.
Can I have a ginger ale?
Doesn't make you a bad person.
I was soft fired back in August (or maybe September. Can't remember, doesn't matter). It went more like a breakup. A "hey, this isn't working out." Which, to be fair, it wasn't.
I still have a lot of respect for how my boss let me go. There's definitely a skill in firing.
This is why I've resisted any attempt at grooming me for management. I don't want to be in a position to fuck up somebody else's life for no better reason than to help make some rich assholes even richer.
My respect for simply taking on that role. I'm stuck at the engineer level in my 30-year career by choice because I was in management once and hated it. I was stuck between a VP who knew jack sh*t about technology and someone very good at their job but who had the personality of a rabid badger. The VP wanted them gone. I was out of that role before I had to make that call, by hiring my replacement and getting back to "turning wrenches."
I totally understand staying at the engineering level. I used to be an engineer myself, and one of the reasons I wanted to move up the ladder was to try to be different from the crappy manager I had in the past. Nowadays, I realize that still hard to make a real difference, but if I can help people have a slightly better day, it's good enough for me.
The firing part still sucks, tho.
I can't even imagine how much firing someone would suck. I hope you get paid handsomely for a having that kind of stressful role!
Until 2 years ago, I was trying to work my way up the corporate ladder. I got made redundant before I hit manager luckily, because I really started to pay attention to the work my manager had to do & I knew deep down I could never handle it. She had to fire a co-worker of mine & it really shook her for a good couple of weeks after. She honestly wasn't sad when she was made redundant with me.
I'll grab a ginger ale too thanks. Extra ice.
I have been doing this for about four years, and it still messes with me every time. Some other managers I know try to convince me with phrases like "There's always a reason for someone being fired", or "It's all part of the game", but that doesn't help me at all. I know how bad it is to be in their shoes, and I can't feel good about it in any way.
Glad to have a ginger ale partner here! Cheers!