Q Stirring It Up (the book club) AAM 3 Remember to respond to my post in this forum A reader writes: I’m the GM of a small company. I have 2 employees who handle important parts of the company. I started at the company 4 years after them so have leaned on them to teach me the “ins & outs” of the company. Since they were both very capable I never took the time to learn how to do the things they do (manage inventory, shipping/receiving). I’ve recently discovered that they are both drinking on the job. It started with an occasional suspicious smell of alcohol after lunch but now has escalated to the point where one or both of them is red-faced and smelling of alcohol nearly everyday (sometimes even in the morning). I think they feel like they can get away with this because they know they’re essential to the company and we wouldn’t be able to do certain things without them (or at least there’d be a lot of mistakes until we did). Obviously this isn’t a good thing and I need to get rid of them (the owner of the company agrees). I’m working on a “How To” handbook where I’ve told all the employees that I need their help to document every function of the business. I feel like this will help me glean as much information from them before I fire them. I think that’s a good plan. My biggest problem is that I’m having trouble separating my knowledge of their personal lives with this decision. One employee is having big financial problems which are affecting his marriage. The other just recently got divorced and is all excited because she just qualified for a loan for a new house. I figure that I’ll have my How To book done in the next 4-6 weeks, which is probably about the time she’ll be closing on that new house. Great timing to fire someone, eh? That could bankrupt her right out of the gate as she tries to establish a new life on her own for her and her son. My question is this, I feel like I owe it to these employees to warn them of their impending doom. They have been good loyal employees for a long time, it’s just been in the last 12-18 months that things have really gotten bad. I don’t think it’s salvageable because I’ve had other problems with their attitude toward changes we’re making. It’s time to move on with some fresh blood. But I feel like it will be devastating to both of them if I just tell them one day that “You’re Fired”. Is it dumb for me to tell them “hey, just so you know the owner and I know that you’ve been drinking on the job and he wants you both gone. I’ve been able to stall him a bit but it’s coming soon. I thought you should know so you can look for something else before you buy a new house, etc”? The one risk there is potential sabotage to the company (i.e. intentional shipping mistakes, not ordering inventory replenishments). Or do I just need to be cold-hearted and think of the company first and forget about how this will affect their personal lives?