As small business owners and managers, we are not doing our employees any favors when we fail to make them do their jobs. Contrary to wage earner folklore, most small business owners are not heartless scoundrels. Rather, most of us are too forgiving of employee nonperformance. We tend to get attached to long-term employees and we are busy, so often we simply hope they will somehow magically turn around. Unfortunately, this is unfair to both the company and the employee. We enable employee behavior by not correcting it, and over time it reaches the point of no return.
The following are some real-life examples of good employees who were poorly managed and ultimately terminated. Of course, we have changed the names to protect the innocent.