Time To Say Goodbye

I ended a relationship with one of my clients today. It felt awful. I didn’t want to do it, but it was the right thing to do; we were not the right fit for each other.

Have you ever had that feeling that someone is not right for your business, but you carry on the relationship anyway, hoping it will get better? Hope is rarely enough.

The employer-employee relationship is like a marriage, it takes work and not just during the honeymoon (probation) period.

If you have gone to the trouble (and expense) of recruiting someone to your team, you should at least give them a fair opportunity to bed in. And if they have been with you some time and perhaps things have gone south, it’s worthwhile spending some time recalibrating the relationship before you give up on it.

However, once you have given it a reasonable chance of success, if it’s still not working, make sure you honour the relationship by bringing it to an end with dignity. This means explaining why it is not working, what you’ve tried to do to improve things and ensuring that you manage their exit sensitively and fairly.   

You’ll only line the lawyers pockets and give yourself more heartache if you end up squabbling over your divorce!