Pulling The Trigger - A Mini Rant

One of my least favourite responsibilities at work is firing people. I can do it and I do it well but I rarely feel great about it.
Even with people who deserve to be fired, for whatever reason, I have moments where I feel sorry, not so much for them but for their wives and kids. Putting these feelings to the back of my mind and focusing on the task at hand is the hard part, unless they are being a prick about it, then things get a bit easier. Not surprisingly, many people do not respond well to being fired. Faced with losing their job, most people go through a remarkable metamorphosis. A guy you have worked with for years, joked with, laughed with, drank beers with, changes from the friendly, easy going person you have always known into an angry finger pointing dickhead when you tell him to get his coat on.

The reason for this change? A lack of personal responsibility. Many people suffer from it. They blame everyone and everything for their stupidity or poor choices. It bugs the shit out of me. I have little respect for a man who cannot find it within himself to say "I'm sorry," or “I fucked up.”
Granted it is hard for most people to admit they are wrong or that they made a mistake. This I understand. I also understand that when put in a tight spot, many people will do whatever they have to do to get out of it, including lying and blaming other people and/or external conditions for their mistakes.
We all have choices in our behaviour. Like, ‘should I steal this stuff that doesn’t belong to me or not?’ Failure to think situations like this through can be costly. Many people fail to take this important fact into consideration when faced with a dilemma such as ‘should I embezzle thousands of dollars from my employer?’ The question "What might happen if I am found out?" doesn't often feature in the thought process. They do naughty things because they firmly believe they will never get caught so the thinking ends there.

It’s much easier to avoid being truthful to ourselves than it is to recognize our mistakes, correct our behaviour and move on. It’s easy to blame someone or something other than ourselves for what happens to us. That is why I admire and respect those that do take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences. Again, it is a choice. If you choose to take this approach I might not fire you, I might put you on a final written warning instead, at which point you get to make another choice ‘should I do it again or should I learn from my mistake?’

This doesn’t mean that a murderer is okay just because he admits he was wrong or smiles and says thank you as a judge sentences him to death, but at least he has the balls to take what is coming to him rather than blaming his crime on a movie or a video game or voices in his head. I'm gonna stay away from all that because we get into the territory of genuine nutcases and crazies. I'm talking about everyday people who fuck up but will never take the blame.

It's almost funny, sittting across a desk from one of these childish half men as he twists and turns and lies and digs himself into a deeper hole than he ever was in the first place. Climbing deeper and deeper into a pit of desperation and torment until he finally gives in and signs the document, usually to appeal his termination to the next level of management, when he will invent new lies, this time about me and how I used racial slurs or foul language and harrassed and intimidated him.
The fuckin' shit. Yeah, I would have liked to have yelled at him, called him a stupid muthafucker and beat him about the head for lying to me and for ruining my fuckin day. But I never would, because like I said, life is full of choices and that would be a poor one.