Getting Rid
Of a Goof-Off

As director of personnel for Zenith City, you receive frequent complaints from managers who say it is impossible for them to fire an incompetent city employee. This time, Tanisha Foushee, the parks commissioner, is on your case. Foushee wants to fire Alfred Bell, a long-serving employee of the parks department who is an obnoxious goof-off. But she knows that getting rid of Bell will be virtually impossible. So she's taking her frustrations out on you.

For Foushee to fire Bell, she has to follow a process similar to that used in many other municipalities. First, she must document his inadequacies and multiple failures: deadlines missed, tasks done incompetently, citizens treated badly, teams disrupted. Bell's done all of these things and more. Second, she must attempt to help Bell improve — again documenting all the steps. Third, she must prepare a formal report, summarizing each of his failures and each of her efforts to provide assistance.

All of this can take months. Then you, as director of personnel, must decide whether to dismiss, reprimand or exonerate Bell.

Bell, of course, will never leave gracefully. He can hire a lawyer, request a hearing, go to the union, file a grievance, talk with a reporter, write to a member of the city council. Resolving such legal and political appeals can take more months (or even years). Moreover, Bell may decide to do more than fight to keep the position. He can retaliate against managers and co-workers, disrupting the parks department and further undermining its performance and morale. Little wonder that few managers try to fire anyone.

The process has been known to work on occasion. Zenith City has fired a few employees. But in every case, it has been time-consuming and costly. Any manager who undertakes to dismiss even the most egregiously incompetent employee must be prepared to hang tough indefinitely and take a lot of heat. Thus, like parks commissioners before her, Foushee has calculated that the costs of ignoring Bell's disruptive behavior are less than the costs of attempting to fire him.

As in other cities, the contents of an incompetent employee's personnel file usually make such a firing harder, not easier. Every year, each Zenith City supervisor evaluates his or her direct reports — placing each employee in one of three categories: "exceeds expectations," "meets expectations" or "does not meet expectations." And every year, nearly every city employee is rated as meeting or exceeding expectations. Thus, even the most insubordinate worker has a personnel file full of evaluations documenting satisfactory performance.

Every manager in Zenith City government hates filling out the annual evaluations. "We don't know why we do this," says one commissioner, "and we don't know where they go." So, few managers take them seriously. They check off a few boxes, return the forms and get on with their real work. Thus, year after year, the city's few incompetent, uncooperative or disruptive employees accumulate more formal evaluations documenting how they are "competent," "cooperative" and "a real team player." A supervisor who looks in such an employee's file will quickly conclude that starting the termination process might not be productive.

It is no mystery why so many employees get rated as "meets" or "exceeds." Some employees who receive a "does not meet" sulk for weeks. Others aggressively seek to undermine their supervisor. All file a grievance. In the process, they erode morale and disrupt work.

Indeed, Alfred Bell has perfected this strategy. Rather than spend his time cleaning up the city's parks, he devotes it to reminding everyone that, if he ever receives a "does not meet," he will create havoc — not just in Parks but throughout city government.

All of Bell's previous supervisors knew this. All of them decided to minimize short-term disruption and maximize short-term performance by giving him a "meets expectations." "It will take me two years — and a lot of work — to get rid of this jerk," said one previous commissioner, "and in another two years, the clown will be someone else's problem."

In Zenith City, the vast majority of employees are both competent and dedicated. Many of them, inspired by the opportunity to make a difference, are energetic, effective and entrepreneurial. They make Zenith City's government work. Only a few are obnoxiously irresponsible, flaunting their unwillingness to do anything not explicitly required by their job description.

But the Alfred Bells do take a toll. They undercut the morale of those who are sincerely trying to do a good job. Indeed, their continued employment and their continued pay increases suggest that Zenith City cannot distinguish between its many hard-working employees and the few malingerers.

Foushee would love to fire Bell — to make him a symbol that Zenith City will no longer tolerate poor employees. But she recognizes that, even if you and she both work together, you will have a hard time pulling it off. Bell knows the system and is a master of delay. With less than two years to early retirement, he can easily check your efforts. Still, Foushee wants you to do something to signal that she can fire the next incompetent employee.

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