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The cost of keeping unproductive employees on the payroll too long can mean more than financial losses for a business.

Take it from Don Milley; with seven years of experience buying and selling companies, he ought to know.

Some years back, as the new owner of a video-conferencing technology company, Milley had to call security to escort an employee from his office in a troubling scene that perhaps could have been avoided.

“He was insubordinate, wasn’t performing, but I didn’t want to rock the boat,” says Milley, now president of Acquisition Associates, a Philadelphia middle-market business brokerage he founded in 2003.

It took two weeks of sub-par performance and a bad attitude before Milley decided he’d had enough.

“We had another ‘conversation,’” Milley says. “Then he ran out of the office and started bad-mouthing me to the other employees. The next day was spent doing damage control.”

For business owners, disciplining and firing bad employees is one of the hardest parts of their job. Some go for months or years tolerating a worker’s chronic lateness, dull work habits and missed deadlines – all while getting paid and taking advantage of your company.

The idea of confronting others with their faults may seem like more than you can handle, but you’re the boss. It goes with the territory.

“They’re uncomfortable conversations,” says Vince Thompson, author of Ignited: Managers! Light Up Your Company and Career (Financial Times Press, 2007, $25.99).

Author: Lori-Anne Miller

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