Earlier in the week I cut a post waxing poetic on the expectations of managers to fire employees for real or perceived performance issues without ever having a series of coaching conversations with them.   Sound familiar?  It did to Lisa at HR Thoughts and Deb at 8 Hours, who had heard it before and pitched in with their takes on the topic...

From Lisa at HR Thoughts:

"A supervisor comes into HR and hands over a 2 inch thick file. In it, they say, is evidence that Johnny has a conduct issue. Cool, we say, we will take a look at this and then get with you tomorrow to talk it over. Enter the intern who has the honor of sorting through 6 months worth of documentation. Outcome? Supervisor gets an "A" in compiling paper but an "F" overall. Now, HR people, quick, why the "F" . . . . YES, supervisor failed to talk to the employee about any of the instances, about any of his/her concerns, and really, about anything at all. To top it off, there was a performance review in the midst of the 6 month documentation period and the employee was rated Fully Satisfactory. Houston, we have a problem. At this point, we punt."

From Deb at 8 Hours and Lunch:

"but not firing fast does have negative implications for the organization. too many to ignore. in fact, it often says a lot about the leadership within the company. how often have you seen non-performers linger for years, unaware that they're having any problems. and have you noticed what that does to morale? remember, people aren't stupid. they know who is doing what, and who is capable and who isn't. so what does that make them think of management then?

then again, hiring slow and not letting managers get away with firing 'that day' without doing their homework first, can suddenly turn into an "HR is not supportive or responsive" riot. this means we have to communicate a lot with our managers, and often need to take the time to train/coach managers through the process. and sometimes it means managing the manager through the early days of the new hires tenure, checking in to make sure that things are going as well as we'd all hoped."

Good stuff from a couple of pros.  For the R-rated version, hit the comment on the site from the Evil HR Lady - she calls it like she sees it....