After the Bell: The strange and difficult aftermath of sending a signal of a good sacking

I wonder if you have ever been in a position in a company where you could see that someone was about to be fired.

Perhaps it’s a person who had just never pulled their weight, someone you know just cannot hack it.

Or worse, it could be someone who is just terrible to everyone. Tries to order people around, doesn’t do what they are supposed to do, things like that.

I remember, in what was probably my first really professional radio job, working in London, when a person came along who seemed to mess up everything he was given.

He was older than me (I was still in my mid-twenties) and supposedly had plenty of experience. I found it really frustrating; he just seemed completely out of kilter with everyone else.

Eventually, someone older and wiser than me took me aside, and with a wry smile on his face simply said, “Stephen, he’s a bluffer. Don’t worry about it; he won’t be here long.”

I suddenly got it. This was a person who claimed to be a journalist, but didn’t know the first thing about how to confirm a fact, or write up a radio news report. 

Hugely successful influencer

He’s probably a hugely successful influencer now. 

And my colleague was correct — he was fired about a month later.

But sometimes a firing is really supposed to do something else. It’s not just about the sacking, the moment when you realise someone is gone. It’s also about sending a signal that, in fact, this organisation or group or whatever must now change direction.

I think people hoping the ANC will now change direction after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s sacking of Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane will be disappointed. I just can’t see it happening.

And this is because when you fire someone, sometimes they leave behind people who support them. The damage doesn’t end with that one person. Instead, elements of their damage continue. 

Nkabane was obviously acting with the support of some people in the ANC. The damage won’t end here.

That said, when a boss is in an assertive mood, you might want to watch out. 

I’m sure plenty of hard-nosed managers have found over the years that nothing promotes productivity like a good firing.

Everyone suddenly stands to attention and you feel that you could be next in line.

But sometimes, you’re only standing so tall because a huge weight has been removed from the team. Now you can stop focusing on the problem and actually make progress.

Feeling of relief

In those cases, there is a feeling of relief.

I’ve often wondered what happened to those people afterwards. Sometimes, I’ve bumped into them again professionally and it was clear they were successful in their new teams. Which means they were just a bad fit in my team.

Sometimes they’ve disappeared, never to be seen again. That probably means something else.

Nowadays, in an era of retrenchments, managers sometimes have the horrible job both of letting someone go and then helping those who are left behind. 

People who think deeply about these things say it can never be easy. 

You have to think of this nebulous fictional blob called “the company”, while telling a person they’re about to lose their security, their friends and often so much more. 

At the same time, you have to think about those who are left behind, your teams and friends who still have to produce what the team needs tomorrow.

No process

One of the most interesting things about Cabinet ministers is that they can be hired and fired with literally no process. It is simply up to the president to decide what to do. 

And there is no legal obligation on the president to explain his decisions.

That said, as Ramaphosa found when he fired the DA’s Andrew Whitfield, not explaining your decision can cause a lot more trouble for yourself.

You will just provoke a cynical response, people will assume you are doing it just because you didn’t like them, or because you had a fight or something else.

At the same time, you can’t really tell everyone why someone has been fired; they also have a right to some kind of privacy.

In the case of Nkabane, it’s pretty clear she’s been fired because she lied to Parliament and, I presume, because the DA wouldn’t back the budget unless she was removed.

But imagine a situation where there was no real cause for her to go, and the DA just didn’t like her? 

What I’d like to see happening is that many of our politicians suddenly realise they need to be seen to be performing. They need to actually do something. And also to realise the way to keep their jobs is to make a productive difference.

Obviously I’m not holding my breath.

But I can still live in hope … and anticipate the next big public sacking. DM