Asked by Anonymous:It is definitely worse for the person being fired but, yes, I have had to do that and it sucks. It is 100% the worst part of running a business. It is very very sad when it becomes necessary and I think everyone I’ve ever had to fire understood why we needed to do it, at least with the benefit of hindsight. I’m not talking about laying off, which is bad but, in a way, better. When you lay someone off at least the reason is financial. When you fire someone, it’s their fault and you have to let them know what they did, how it was wrong, talk through it, and then tell them that it isn’t going to be OK.
It is a very hard thing to do and the couple times I’ve had to do it are among the worst days of my life. The way I run my businesses, my employees are often close friends as well, so that relationship can become very complicated when it sours. But again, it sucks much more for the person being fired so I have tried to do it as kindly as possible, even when the person in question seriously fucked up and there’s a lot of anger inside of me about it.
Just to be clear though, the people on the Crash Course, SciShow, DFTBA, and VidCon teams are absolutely spectacular and the good times most certainly outweigh the bad. Which is why I do my best to not wall myself off from those people. I want to be their peer as well as their boss. I want them to know that I work for them as much as they work for me. Even if that means it hurts a lot more when it (very occasionally) ends badly.
i have to fire my first person next month.
they are actually awful (like, i will definitely not miss them when they’ve gone), and i know it needs to be done, but i still feel terrible about it. especially since i know it’s going to happen almost a month in advance, but i’m not allowed to tell them until the paperwork is approved.
anxiety dreams all around.
