I Sat Through A 45-minute Rant About How Much Of A “lazy Rich Kid” I Am. The Employee Had No Idea I Actually Own The Company. Should I Have Fired Him On The Spot?

Russell had been with the company for 12 years and was one of my most reliable managers, someone who knew how to balance pushing for productivity with treating his team fairly. He asked if this was about Dennis and I confirmed it was.

Russell sighed and said he’d been afraid this was coming because Dennis’s attitude had been getting worse over the past few months. He said Dennis seemed to think the rules didn’t apply to him and that he deserved special treatment despite his mediocre performance.

Russell had tried coaching and direct feedback, but nothing seemed to get through to Dennis, who always had an excuse or blamed someone else for his shortcomings. Claudia arrived with Dennis a few minutes later, and I could see the confusion on Dennis’s face when he realized he was being led to a meeting with people he didn’t recognize.

Russell he knew, but Claudia and I were strangers to him despite the fact that I’d sat next to him at lunch just a few hours ago. Dennis sat down across from me looking annoyed and asked what this was about because he needed to get back to his station.

Russell started to speak, but I held up a hand and said I’d take this one. I introduced myself by name and title and watched Dennis’s face go from annoyed to confused to absolutely horrified as he realized who I was.

The color drained from his face and his mouth opened and closed a few times without any sound coming out. I let the silence hang there for a moment before saying:

“I’d had a very interesting lunch today where I’d learned a lot about what one of my employees thought of me and my leadership.”

Dennis started stammering out an apology but I cut him off and said I wasn’t interested in apologies right now; I was interested in facts. I asked him to tell me about his performance over the past eight months and specifically why he thought he deserved recognition when his numbers were consistently at the bottom of his team.

Dennis’s stammering got worse and he looked to Russell for help, but Russell just sat there with his arms crossed waiting for Dennis to answer the question. I walked Dennis through his performance record point by point, contrasting what he’d said at lunch with what his file actually showed.

He’d claimed he worked harder than anyone else but his production numbers said otherwise. He’d said he had perfect attendance but he actually had two absences and a pattern of extended breaks.

He’d claimed he never got recognition but I could see from his file that Russell had given him positive feedback on the few occasions when Dennis actually performed well. Every complaint Dennis had made about being undervalued fell apart when confronted with documentation of his actual performance.

I asked him if he could explain the discrepancy between his perception and reality and Dennis just sat there looking at his hands. Finally, he mumbled something about how the quotas were too high and he was doing the best he could.

I pointed out that 70% of his co-workers had no trouble meeting those same quotas, which suggested the problem wasn’t the standards. Russell added that he’d offered Dennis additional training multiple times, but Dennis had always refused, saying he already knew how to do the job.

I moved on to Dennis’s complaints about me personally, the ones where he’d painted me as some lazy disconnected rich kid who’d never worked a day in my life. I gave him a brief summary of my actual background, including the two jobs I’d worked to save up money to buy this business, the 15 years I’d spent learning every aspect of the operation, and the regular floor visits where I observed and listened without announcing myself.

I asked Dennis if he remembered ever seeing me on the floor before today and he shook his head. I said that was interesting because I’d been within 20 feet of him at least a dozen times over the past eight months, but he’d been too busy complaining to his co-workers to notice.

Dennis looked like he wanted to disappear into his chair. I told him that some of his complaints at lunch were actually fair points that I was already working to address, like the parking lot and some of the breakroom amenities, but the way he’d presented those concerns wrapped in personal attacks and false assumptions made it impossible for me to take him seriously as someone who wanted to improve the workplace.

I asked Dennis why he’d stayed with the company for eight months if he was so unhappy and he didn’t have a good answer. He mumbled something about the job market and needing the income, which was honest at least.

I told him that I understood not every job was a perfect fit and that sometimes the best thing for everyone was to part ways. Dennis’s eyes widened and he asked if I was firing him.

I said I was giving him a choice because I believed in treating people fairly even when they’d been trashtalking me for 45 minutes straight. Option one was a performance improvement plan where he’d work closely with Russell to bring his numbers up to acceptable standards and fix his attitude problems.

The plan would last 90 days, and if he couldn’t meet the clearly defined goals, his employment would be terminated. Option two was to resign today with two weeks of severance pay and a neutral reference that simply confirmed his dates of employment.