TIME TO SAY GOODBYE
IS TRANSPARENT SEPARATION RIGHT FOR YOUR COMPANY?
• The company has time to find a suitable replacement, resulting in a smoother transition.
Getting fired is a horrible experience. Losing a job is hard on an employee, and terminating an employee can create a whole mess of grief for a company. In a 2018 article for Harvard Business Review, Investopedia CEO David Siegel laid out his strategy to avoid the troubles of termination by offering a more considerate approach to firing: transparent separation. In a transparent separation, when underperforming employees are informed that their tenure with the company is coming to an end, they are given a time frame to look for a new job before their last day. Employees are asked to keep the arrangement confidential and are expected to maintain job performance. Siegel states that employees who abuse the goodwill of transparent separation should be let go immediately. Transparent separation is a wild departure from the traditional termination playbook, but Siegel insists that the strategy offers some incredible benefits, such as the following:
• Remaining employees feel more comfortable when they don’t have to worry about “disappearing” overnight.
Even with all these positives, Siegel notes that transparent separation may not be the best course of action for every employee termination. For example, if the soon-to-be-ex- employee is a manager whose toxic behavior is harming the work environment, they need to be shown the door immediately. Siegel claims that in two-thirds of cases, transparent separations offered the best outcome both for the company and the former employee. There are potential drawbacks to transparent separation. Opponents to this strategy note the potential damage a disgruntled employee can cause after being told they are losing their job. Some employees may even prefer to collect severance and leave so they can fully focus on the job search. Is transparent separation the answer to all your termination woes? The jury’s still out; there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to any business problem. What works great for one company might not be best for another. But if you think the pros outweigh the cons, transparent separation might be worth considering the next time your company has to say goodbye.
• Departing employees avoid the struggle of trying to find a new job while unemployed.
• There’s reduced legal risk that the company might be sued by an angry employee.
•
Managers are not cast in an adversarial role for abrupt firings.
REASSESSING TIME MANAGEMENT IDENTIFYING PRIORITIES AND HONING IN ON THEM
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you feel like you did a ton but have little to show for it? I know it’s not just business owners who feel this way — almost everyone has experienced it. While I’ve gotten better at managing my schedule over the years, I still struggle with certain aspects of time management; prioritizing is my challenge. There are so many things to do in a day that I struggle to focus on the most important. I’ve made a conscious effort this year to improve my prioritization skills. I started by really looking at how I spend my time. Every night, I plan out the next day by writing a list of what I need to accomplish. I use my iPad to track my time in 30-minute increments and start adding things for 7 a.m. After three days in a row of this routine, I started to see patterns for what I needed to add and what I needed to eliminate. This exercise keeps me focused on the high-priority tasks. It frees up more of my time so I can work on projects I’ve identified as crucial to my business.
this, I’ve gotten more realistic about what I can do in a day. I typically stick to 10 tasks that are related to the three projects I’ve identified as my priorities. Throughout the day, I check off what I’ve done (or list what I did instead). Looking back, I can evaluate and decide how I did in a given day or week and adjust from there. The problem with the old running-in-place strategy is that while you might maintain the status quo, it keeps you from moving forward. You need to find a way to gain momentum toward your goals. I encourage you to begin with a list. Write down several goals every night that you have identified as your priorities for the year. From there, the only tasks that should go on your list for the coming days are those that move you toward your goals.
This means I start every day with a game plan. From 7 a.m. on, I know what my day looks like. As I’ve been doing
2 | www . reiblaw . com
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs