How companies let people go says a lot about those companies.
Three personal anecdotes/grievances
The loading dock
I once worked at a company where they routinely fired employees within 90 days of starting. This was basically a strategy the leadership team had come up with to ensure, in their minds at least, they were hiring only the best people. The energy around these firings, though, skewed far too close to relish.
I remember one employee getting fired, who actually started the same day as me, and his manager, the CEO, and the COO were running around the building trying to find him in order to fire him. Eventually, they figured out he was smoking out on the loading dock of the building. His manager actually yelled out “He’s on the loading dock!” – before they all scurried along to corner the poor guy. It was like a Mission Impossible movie.
New desk
At that same company, on my first day while I sat in orientation, my predecessor was being fired in another part of the building. I didn’t know this was happening until later, but, looking back, the general frostiness as I entered the section of the office I’d be working in and sat down at my new desk (his old desk that had been hurriedly cleared out) was entirely understandable.
I did not stay at this company long.
Recruiting then firing
I worked at another company which was relatively small and partly relied on recruiting employees’ former coworkers to come and work with them. Since the company was a startup and somewhat messy, some of these recruited employees ended up getting fired by the very people who recruited them.
It should probably go without saying, but: if you are a person involved in recruiting a former coworker to your currently messy company, the least you can do is divulge how messy it is. The person you’re recruiting is probably putting a lot of faith in your judgment on why they should join the company.
Unfortunately, it’s usually hard to see how companies fire people before you join them. But I think once you’re in there, how they handle situations like this can be a barometer for how long you might want to stay there.
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