question.

[barbtries]

i think this (the lounge) is the place for this. is it professional, or fair, or right, in a professional office setting, to tell everyone else in the office you're letting a person go, before telling that person??

this happened at my office yesterday. my boss excused me from the office for three hours because i said i didn't think i could keep it from being written all over my face.

my personal feeling is that the practice is both reprehensible and unprofessional. letting one or two people know is one thing, informing everyone else in the office is something else. this is an office of less than 20 people.

thank you. this has been eating me up.

[LeftyFingerPop]

1. It is absolutely wrong and shows complete disrespect to the person being fired. n/t

[barbtries]

2. thank you lefty

my feelings exactly. it's humiliating. it's adding insult to injury. it should not happen.

[DFW]

3. It's one of the lowest blows one can pull on an employee

I would be tied up in rage even I were not the victim.

[barbtries]

6. thank you DFW

i see it as some kind of twisted test of loyalty for the hapless employees who are placed in the position of knowing their co-worker is about to get the ax. and this person i consider a friend as well. aargh.

[lunatica]

4. I don't see how this can even be debated. It's wrong. Period.

It makes a fool out of the person being fired, and a partner in unethical conspiracy of everyone else. Wrong. Period.

Trust your instincts on this and good for you for refusing to take a part in it.

[barbtries]

5. thank you lunatica

i think i just needed this validation of my feelings and beliefs. terrible as it is, apparently it is not entirely unheard of.

[supernova]

7. It's wrong, unethical, unprofessional

The "boss" deserves to be shitcanned just for that.

Will it happen? Probably not.

Sorry that's happening to you.

:hug:

[barbtries]

8. thank you supernova

i feel better now having my instincts and feelings validated. :)

[MiddleFingerMom]

9. My instinctive reaction is that there COULD possibly be a reason...

.
...but it would be extremely rare, as if in the real possibility that
the person is volatile or conceivably COULD become violent.
.
Not put into those official words, but a company MIGHT be liable
or reprehensible if it did NOT give a general heads-up to its other
employees. I think the same people condemning THIS act (without
knowing many details) would then turn about and condemn the boss
for NOT doing so.
.
I've learned quickly on DU that many posters of scenarios quickly
add "Oh, yeah... I forgot this (these) details". Noticeable in this
case is a lack of ANY explanation of any motivation the boss had
for calling his/her people in.
.
May be other reasons... but in all likelihood, at initial glance it does
seem like an asshole attempt by management at damage control
to its OWN image more than anything else.
.

[barbtries]

10. i can see your scenario happening in some places

not in this case, not at all. the person who was let go yesterday did not deserve any added humiliation (well imo she did not deserve to be let go, but that's not my call to make).

[rurallib]

11. Normally I would say wrong, wrong, wrong but MFM brings up

a scenario that we sort of had many years ago.
A worker was let go. He had a violent background and had made statements that could have been construed as violent.
When he was let go, we weren't told, but police were in the parking lot at about the same time this guy was escorted in to see the boss.

As a normal practice, what you describe is very akin to rubbing lots of salt into a freshly opened room.

[barbtries]

12. it's SNAFU here.

it's the 3rd time. the first time though i had not been here very long and i worked up close and personal with the person - who had definitely earned her dismissal. second time i twisted and turned for the two or so hours that i knew and he didn't. yesterday i told my boss i really hated knowing before the person knew, and although i could tell she was annoyed, my boss told me to leave the office until after the deed was done. so i did.

i really think that here, it's about a test of loyalty. i also really think there are much better ways to do that.

[rurallib]

13. is it the same boss doing this? Does he (or she) have superiors?

And would you be risking anything if you went and talked to such a superior?
Place I worked was pretty open and it was fairly easy to talk to bosses. And there was never repercussions. But I think that openness led to there being little of the kind of thing you describe.

[barbtries]

14. yes, no

and yes.
it's usually great around here believe it or not.