I fired someone for the first time today. This person was the first I hired and was with me for 18 months. It was a hard decision and probably months overdue. She didn’t take it well and ended up threatening me. The close friendship we had feels fake. I helped her in her times of need so many times and feel taken advantage of.
I couldn’t sleep last night and feel sick. I’ve done nothing wrong. I understand looking back at former bosses why they kept their distance. It’s just my nature to want to get close to employees because it’s a small business and we are together so many hours a week. Any words of advise from my fellow small business owners?
It’s never easy to fire anyone, even if they were terrible hires. My advice, don’t live in fear. Many people don’t mean what they say when they are angry. At the end, it comes down to what your company needs to survive. You have people (including yourself) that depend on the paycheck(s) your company provides, so having a healthy business is your #1 priority.