Now Tony Hsieh, he’s a CEO who has nailed happiness. He has preached how to ensure employees are happy at work, and why it’s important to create a culture of happiness for employee productivity and company success. He’s received a lot of attention over his book.
And yet… I just saw a blog post where he says he has no problem firing someone if they don’t fit or “inspire” the culture.
This stung.
From my lens, I am clearly reacting on the defense of that statement. I found it to be so broad – carte blanche, without further definition. There are so many what-if’s that come to mind when I hear this. I have been on both sides, but not without huge investment and, when it came time, really knowing we had exhausted all possibilities. This didn’t happen so much in the “good old days”, or so I hear from my folk’s generation. It was a time when companies invested more in employees. Today, we are simply casualties of war. Companies are always at a price war or retail war or service war to succeed. The idea that we are all “in this together” has dissipated for some.
What are some of the impacts of a subjective decision to let you go? It’s all in the hands of the hiring manager or the company owner, and it can lead to life-changing results. For me, I know there were more forces than one person at play. But the loyalty wasn’t to me as an investment. Assuming I’m partially at fault, and I am sure I am, there was never a conversation from those of my peers who knew Harry best, and who might have known I was flailing and marching in the wrong direction. In fact, they mostly ignored my moves and watched me fall flat. Where’s the “in this together” piece in that? And so, Tony Hsieh, I need to ask how you would answer this, upon firing folks who do not inspire your culture at Zappos.
What if she were 20, and just getting excited about her career, and you let her go without explaining what you mean by “culture fit”? And now she’s questioning if she even chose the right path, not sure where to go next. You just became the “un-mentor”.
What if she’s over 40 and this has completely dowsed her fire to keep working in corporate America? In this case, maybe you were a catalyst. But I wonder if it’s easier to take rejection at 20… At 40, she is vacillating between knowing thyself, “having arrived” midlife, to “having fallen from grace” after being hit on the head by a large mallet.
And what about Sheryl Sandberg ? Success and likeability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women. Men are more liked as they become more successful, and women are less liked.
Does Tony realize his definition of “inspiring the culture” might even be gender biased?
Now that it’s happened to me, I’ve heard from more and more people for whom this type of situation happened as well. “Sorry, it’s not working out. It’s me who can’t change”. Good bye.
Well it IS time to change. Change this behavior in corporate A.M.
Agent M
Comments are closed.