In Part One of The Sacred of Hiring and Firing I offered guideposts for you to create both the practical and the energetics to sacred hiring. In my opinion, hiring and firing can be really good for your business and for you as a person, but it does take a bit of intention, planning and thought.
You can read the Sacred of Hiring & Firing, Part One HERE.
Today, I am sharing with you how to fire someone in a sacred way. Firing people is no fun. I have to admit it's something I don't love doing. But, sometimes we have to let people go. Sometimes they just aren't a good fit for us any more. Sometimes they change, and sometimes we change.
Firing someone can be messy. It can be emotional. It can be stressful. All of those things can happen in any instance of firing someone. But, it can also be done in a thoughtful and caring way.
In any sort of sacred situation, I believe that practicality and energetics play a part. I have listed out both sections for you, starting with the energetics.
The Energetics of Firing
• Whenever you find yourself at a place of letting someone go from their employment position, it can be really helpful for you to write out all of the reasons why this person is no longer a good fit. Get clarity on why you no longer wish to employ this person.
• Take some time and get grounded in your body. Take some deep breaths and connect in with you root, sacral and solar plexus chakra. Allow yourself to feel grounded in your decision.
• When speaking to the person (which I always recommend- firing over text or email is always a little too messy in my opinion) I recommend that you arrive to the conversation feeling as grounded and clear as you possibly can. If you feel like it is required, have your list of reasons for letting the person go ready for you to access if you need it. Feel confident in your decision to move on from this employee as much as you can.
• After letting someone go, take a moment to clear your energy. Remove anything that belonged to the person. Do a cord cutting meditation to release the person from your energy field. Lovingly release them from your realm. (If you haven't experienced cord cutting before, the simplest way to describe the practice is to imagine a cord between you and the person. Then imagine yourself (or Arc Angel Michael) cut the cord between you and the person. Imagine all of the energy of the person going back to them and all of your energy cleanly returning to you.
• Firing someone can feel really heavy and you might carry that energy around with you for a while. Take hot baths with epsom salts, sage your surroundings, do multiple cord cutting meditations and visualizations. Allow yourself to process all of the emotions you experience as you go through letting some one go. Even if you didn't like the person, you likely will still go through a grieving process.
The Practicalities of Firing
• If you are concerned that letting this person go will cause a lot of drama for you, be sure to speak to a lawyer to make sure you have done everything you need to before speaking to them.
Have the lawyer read over the employment contract.
• When letting someone go and if it's required, make sure you have any sort of severance package ready. Often this isn't necessary, but if the contract reflects a severance package you are obligated to honor it.
• If you work for a corporation, involve the human resources team. Often they know about the ins and outs of firing way more than we do.
• If you are breaking a contract, honor whatever the contract reflects in regards to breaking it.
• If you feel like safety will be an issue for you or for the person you are letting go (hopefully not, but this can happen) be sure to have another person with you during the conversation.
• If there was something this employee was doing that you no longer are willing to tolerate or experience, make sure you write that down in your list for the next person you hire. (Check out part one for more information about this.)
• Take some time to reflect on anything you could do differently in the future. Are there any patterns or behaviors that you consciously or unconsciously played out? What could you do differently in the future?
• What does your existing team need to know about the situation? Do you need to address anything with them as you move forward?
Letting someone go can cause a lot of stress. But, in the end you are creating room for someone who will hopefully fit better into the work you are doing.
Please feel free to come back to this article the next time you are considering letting someone go.
With love,
Katherine
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