Laying off employee is not the solution

Two days ago, I received a very shocking news. One of my colleagues was asked to leave the company (service terminated) within 24 hours. This is the third incident for the past year. Furthermore, no reasons were given to them for the termination. Do not get me wrong, this is an international company and it is not a culture for them to sack an employee.

Coincidentally, 3 of them who got their services terminated report directly to the same boss. This boss joined the company a year ago and started to lay off people within the first 2 months in the company after he had several disagreements with the first manager. Subsequently, the other 2 managers got laid off too and both of them were not in good terms with the boss. In fact, what I know of, most of the people in the office whom deal with this boss despise him for cowardice, indecisiveness, fickle-minded opinions, excessively sensitive, easily offended and etc.

After each wave of termination (which is within every few months), everyone (including myself) was demoralized and fear that we will be the next target. Everyone seemed to be less focused, less objective and more defensive. I could understand that because everyone worries that their bowl of rice would be taken away from them if they are not careful enough when dealing with him.

As I am quite an agressive and a direct person, I found it very very hard to tolerate his incapabilities and had a few word wars with him. Although I do not directly report to him, the impact that he caused upon me is catastrophic. Despite his incapabilities, I have to force myself to respect, tolerate and support him as much as I can to lessen the impact.

Herewith, I would like to share some of my experiences and opinions for self improvements and for someone out there as a reference.

For Employers:

Review and improve
If you receive 10 feedbacks and most of them are negative about you, then you should review whether the problems lie within your subordinates or yourself. If you realized that you have committed a mistake, be quick to admit and sincerely apologize. I truly believe that it is more effective to learn from mistakes and gain REAL respects rather than forcing the employees to succumb with fear to respect you. Laying off people that you are unable to gain respect from is not the way out. It not only creates fear among your employees, in fact, you are not solving the rootcause to your problem.

Treat everyone fairly
In order to be successful, unity in the teams that you lead is very important. Unity ensures and provides harmony within the office and promotes effectiveness and efficiency. Unity could be achieved by lessening the differences on how you treat your subordinates. Be fair and just when you handle your people and try to avoid favourism that will create competition against each other.

Guide and lead
Be concise of what you really want your team to achieve. Set targets and KPI which are reasonable based on your employee's capabilities. The achievements that you gained reflects on how well you manage and lead them. Remember that it might not be the employee not performing, it could have been that they did not get a clear directions from you.

Understand and communicate more
Every person has their own distinguished characters and working style. Try to understand your employee more by communicating more with them. By understanding and communicating well with your employees, you will be able to adjust and increase productivity & flexibility from them.

For Employees:

Stop Gossipping
I find that a lot of people (especially girls) like to gossip. Gossipping could be a fun activity within the office during breaks. However, normally it does not bring any benefits. Not only it is not beneficial, very likely it could be damaging. First of all, you do not know how true those gossips are as most of them are rumours. Not only it affects your perception/ impression towards the person being gossipped, it also will impact the relationships and worsen the harmony in the office. Could you imagine the impact if what you have gossipped about your boss reach him/ her?

Try to respect the boss
Everyone will have their weaknesses and strong skills. In my opinion, although this boss has endless of weaknesses, I do respect him for his diplomacy and always a 'YES' man within the management. This made him very likable in the eyes of his superior. Trying to respect him rather than complaining about him for his incompetencies will help to lessen your hatred towards him and you will be able to deal better with your boss

Remind yourself that he/ she is the BOSS
No matter how bad or dificcult is your boss in your eyes, he or she will always be your boss. Remember that he has the influence within the management (NOT you) and he could make you live or die in the company, so why want to oppose him too much? Try to adapt to his style of working. If not, try to avoid dealing with him too much in the office. Less dealings, less arguments. However, if you could not even tolerate his presence or the relationship has turned sour/ incurable, then I think it is best for you to start looking for a new job. Whether or not you think that outside lies better opportunities or you will meet a better boss, you may refer to this topic. (Is it really greener on the other side?)

Lower his defenses
Be patient and gain his trusts. Once he thinks that you are not a threat to him, he will lower his defences and be less offensive. It will be easier for you to reach your objectives and your desires. I noticed in my office that those who are too aggressive (including myself) could aggravate the issue. Creating unnecessary enemies is the least you want to do to achieve your targets especially if he is your superior.

Increase your EQ
Handling people is very sensitive matter. I have discussed about how important to acquire EQ (IQ vs EQ)