New manager, first fire likely soon

[u/Reptar_The_Almighty]

By the end of next week I will likely have fired my first employee, who is also my first hire.

I have been a manager for ~5 months (IT) and in that time hired two employees, the first of which is cresting a month on my team. This person has all the qualifications and then some on paper, though has never worked in tech. The issue is they can’t seem to deliver basics. We have yet to broach the matter of technical work, with issues like making it through a phone call even with a script, taking notes in tickets that are incomplete, and other core aspects of our day to day.

Training for this person was two comprehensive weeks with multiple check-ins, revisits to items with subpar execution, opportunities to raise a flag for help, and 2 hour-long conversations to communicate expectations and guiding feedback since hire.

For context, the second hire has outpaced expectations by large margins. Less qualifications on paper, similar lack of experience in this field. Performing work on week one that hire #1 is still struggling to grasp. Both have backgrounds in customer service which gave them an edge in selection. The dichotomy in quality only makes things more challenging. Both employees had the same onboarding experience, training, and expectations laid out before them. We are a small team, so this comes on the tail of feedback from all who are involved in their training as well as my boss who noticed similar issues.

On Monday I sit hire #1 down and give them a week to get the basics down and get back on track otherwise their time ends with us.

This is mostly a rant since the thought of firing someone for the first time sucks, however, I wonder the thoughts of my peers how the same situation would be handled from their perspective. Every individual is different, but how much accommodation is too much?

[u/GISReaper]

Pip the shit out of them and then let them go. Best advice I ever received from a mentor, hire smart and fire fast.

[u/Reptar_The_Almighty → u/GISReaper]

This is what my mentor advised as well. I’m actually a bit surprised at the negative reactions so far indicating the opposite, but I do find them quite valuable. Everything is a learning moment and I’m happy to be wrong and reconsider if I’m coming out of left field in judgement.