Do you really run a business where you threaten employees with termination as a form of motivation?
Absolutely not.
Putting an employee in a defensive state (where they're either looking for another job or trying desperately to keep their current one) is not sound management technique.
Agreed.
I've built three companies and have managed, hired or fired dozens of people. Under no circumstances can I see what the OP proposed working for me.
I think we're both reading different things from the OPs post. I don't see it as threatening. I see it as transparency. Making it clear to everybody - employer and employee - how issues around continual employment are resolved.
This is not something that's introduced at the point of "I want to get rid of this person". This is something that's a part of how the company is run, and is made explicit right from the start.
This is not something that's done with the aim of firing somebody. This is something that's done with the aim of fixing the problem. Fixing the problem doesn't always mean firing the employee. That's just one outcome of many.
Perhaps it's a cultural thing.
I'm in the UK and pretty much every company I've worked for, and every one I've run, has had a structure to how employees leave a company in the same way that there's a structure to how they come on board.
The "fire you for any reason at any time" thing that seems to be the general rule in the US seems a far more scary and demotivating mechanism from my perspective.
> The "fire you for any reason at any time" thing that seems to be the general rule in the US seems a far more scary and demotivating mechanism from my perspective.
Do keep in mind that it goes both ways: employers who often exercise that right for reasons that appear arbitrary suffer from it in the long run, because even the good people aren't happy with management like that.
Absolutely not.
Putting an employee in a defensive state (where they're either looking for another job or trying desperately to keep their current one) is not sound management technique.
Agreed.
I've built three companies and have managed, hired or fired dozens of people. Under no circumstances can I see what the OP proposed working for me.
I think we're both reading different things from the OPs post. I don't see it as threatening. I see it as transparency. Making it clear to everybody - employer and employee - how issues around continual employment are resolved.
This is not something that's introduced at the point of "I want to get rid of this person". This is something that's a part of how the company is run, and is made explicit right from the start.
This is not something that's done with the aim of firing somebody. This is something that's done with the aim of fixing the problem. Fixing the problem doesn't always mean firing the employee. That's just one outcome of many.
Perhaps it's a cultural thing.
I'm in the UK and pretty much every company I've worked for, and every one I've run, has had a structure to how employees leave a company in the same way that there's a structure to how they come on board.
The "fire you for any reason at any time" thing that seems to be the general rule in the US seems a far more scary and demotivating mechanism from my perspective.