Stop Saving the Wrong Employees

Why do companies beg mediocre people to stay?

I’m sorry to say that during my short tenure working in the IT department at AMD long ago, I learned much more about what NOT to do than what to do when it came to managing people.

Soon after I arrived, I began accumulating responsibilities and staff. At one point, I had nineteen direct reports (way too many for a single manager), split between Austin, Texas, and Sunnyvale, California.

One of those employees was clearly not carrying her weight in the organization. I began to hear reports that she was getting other employees to do her job and was accomplishing about half as much as any other person in the group. I tried to work with her and sent her for additional training, but the problem didn’t improve.

I kept my boss informed all along the way and was ready to terminate the employee. When I mentioned this to my boss, he told me that she would first have to be put on a performance improvement plan for a quarter before we could get rid of her. I thought this was likely a waste of time …