Why is it so hard to fire someone in some organisations?

[Merryoldgoat]

Now I am someone who thinks it’s important to have fair hiring practices and maintaining a professional work environment.

However my DH has been having an utter nightmare with one of his team members and HR have made him go through an unbelievable amount of rigmarole to just get to the point where they are about to offer him money to go.

The guy has been less than two years.

A few examples of what he’s done

Lied to my husband’s face about when he started work multiple times

Missed deadlines after reassuring DH he’d ’nearly finished’

Going AWOL and refusing to answer messages or calls

Inappropriate use of sick leave and annual leave

Saying he’ll attend meetings and not turning up

At least 5 occasions where he claims to have emailed or messaged DH on Teams but ‘it didn’t send’

Never on time after already agreeing a later start time than everyone else in the team.

Every time DH has tried to address firmly HR have said they need to offer more support and it’s not reached the stage where they can let go.

They are now going to probably pay him 4-6 months pay which seems mad given he’s clearly not capable of the job.

It makes zero sense to me - if you work in HR can you explain this?

For context DH works for a university - I don’t know if that makes a difference.

I’d have been able to dismiss this person months ago if they worked for me.

In my experience, it's only hard if the employer is decent.

It once took me two years to dismiss a member of staff. They told me they under performed because they were not trained properly because the trainers in our area didn't like him. I arranged for them to be trained again in another area. 13 weeks it took.

After that I arranged for them to have a mentor, someone I knew had failed their 6 month probation, but eventually passed and had been a great employee for over four years.

I had weekly meeting with them and their union representative.

it was exhausting. But the individual was just was not cut out for our area of work.

Despite the time it took ( mine, theirs, union reps and mentors) I was secure in the fact that I had given them every possible chance.

It short a decent employer will ensure every avenue is explored thoroughly before dismissal.

It took me almost 2 years to get someone fired in my organisation. The person literally bullied other members of staff, took the piss out of their appearances and medical conditions, had numerous customer complaints, wasn’t performing which could be evidenced in black and white, rude to senior managers, amongst so many other things. HR send me round and round the houses. Seemed to care more about that person than the rest of the team and our customers.

Im still baffled to this day why it took so long!

I previously worked in the private sector and I’ve seen former colleagues fired very quickly after starting their employment there.

Most were fired due to conduct and one was fired for attendance.

The one who was fired for attendance had 19 sick days. He was employed there for three years and had disabilities (the reason for his absences.)
There were no reasonable adjustments to the trigger points and no Occupational Health assessment before taking the decision to dismiss. The director gave no fucks.

One person was also fired for eating a pork pie in the staffroom when she was not even on break lol.

The Employers Rights Act is not yet in force - still at Bill stage and they will still be able to get rid in first 9 months for a variety of reasons.

HR always play this silly game where they seem to think you can't get rid of someone. You can - it's just a matter of how much £££ it will cost the company.

His HR are shit. This is very straightforward.

this is why I don’t believe universities saying they’re in financial difficulties- they can’t be if they’re carrying dead weight like this employee and apparently their HR team

Same for every workplace I've been in. Private.

Agree with this poster, I work in private sector HR. Big fan of settlement agreements, gives the person being asked to leave a bit more money, protects the business and keeps my name out of the tribunal records.