home Business blogs Should you agree when people talk you out of quitting? Why did the employee quit voluntarily? How to retain an employee who wants to quit.

Should you agree when people talk you out of quitting? Why did the employee quit voluntarily? How to retain an employee who wants to quit.

Times when it was considered normal to have one entry per work book, or even one place of work, are long gone. According to VTsIOM surveys, if citizens no longer needed to work for money, then 19% would change their place of work and the same number of Russians would refuse to be hired altogether. On average, a person changes from 10 to 15 places during his professional life, spending from several months to 5 years in one team. In most cases, people change jobs for a better paying one due to moving to another city and the desire to build a career. Rounding out the top 5 reasons is choosing a less stressful job and escaping from incompetent or pressured management. Increasingly, leaving is associated with the desire to start your own business.

Ideally, the decision to dismiss is made carefully. The picture drawn in one of Shnur’s videos, when they part with a hated job for once, with a scandal, is unlikely to be as good in real life. Especially if you weren't lucky enough to make a few hundred million dollars recently and you don't plan on quitting. labor activity forever.

Advice on how to break up with an employer as safely as possible is very similar to advice for divorce: there is much more in common between work and romantic relationships than might seem at first glance. The process of leaving will characterize both you and the employer as much as the experience of cooperation, and both factors will definitely influence your career.

Information - personally to the addressee

The first person to know about your decision to leave the company should be your boss. Otherwise, information incorrectly conveyed by colleagues may distort your true intentions and make the process not as simple as you would like. Modern methods of communication allow you to quit without personal contact - by e-mail, SMS or Facebook, but it’s better to communicate your decision face to face. Psychologists and recruiters advise making the meeting just enough to communicate your decision and not leave time for discussion. Be prepared for sharp reactions, objections and temptations - prepare strong arguments in favor of your decision.

Leaving go

Stick to your plan—simply thank your boss for his consideration and let him know you'll be moving forward anyway. Most people who accept a counteroffer from their current employer end up leaving within six months. When talking about the reasons for your dismissal, focus on the fact that the new offer is more profitable - in terms of salary and location. Be prepared for a “dismissal” interview: now the HR departments of many companies are building an employee retention strategy based on surveys of those who decided to leave, but even in this case, you shouldn’t cut your teeth and express everything that hurts, so think about the wording. Virgin founder Richard Branson, who during his time leading the company had to endure many layoffs, including leading employees, advises against burning bridges: many of those who thanked him for his experience and were able to build own business, are now partners in Branson’s projects.

Escorted - according to the mind

Maintaining a good relationship with your ex-employer can be beneficial for both of you. Keep in mind that a former employer may give you a good recommendation or a negative review. A recent case from practice - companies closed their doors to a job seeker because, when calling their last place of work, HR specialists heard that “we don’t work with mediocrities.” Even if you are experiencing negative emotions, do everything to ensure that being fired does not harm your future career. Do not try to take commercial advantage of your dismissal and take, for example, important information as severance pay. The story of Uber top manager Anthony Levandowski, who was accused by his former employer Google of stealing secret developments upon dismissal, is well known. Scandalous legal proceedings ended with Lewandowski’s dismissal from his new job without financial compensation and the possibility of buying back shares of the technology corporation. In Russia, a high-profile trial between Yandex and Zvook is still ongoing: the latter accuses the rival corporation of poaching key employees who took away marketing ideas.

Make a last impression

Your loss may be felt by the entire organization. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, firing an employee costs a company a lot - 6 to 9 months of the employee's salary, which will be spent on recruiting and training the candidate. To mitigate this time, you will have to work the required labor legislation or the time specified in the contract, complete all documents, transfer cases. So do it for real high level. The last impression, like the first, will be impossible to repeat. It is unlikely that any of your colleagues or employers will remember your previous labor exploits during this period, but the fact that in the last week you were constantly late, left early and were never able to complete the work you started will remain in the memory of all your former colleagues . It is unlikely that you will want them to share this information with future employers. Ideally, suggest a professional to replace you. If the employer respected the result of your work, he will pay attention to your recommendations. If at the time of your departure there are unfinished projects in the company in which you play key role, provide the opportunity to take part in bringing them to completion even after dismissal - provide contact details for communication.

Don't annoy your colleagues

Having decided to quit, you will probably feel like a prisoner who has very little time left before his release. But you shouldn’t upset your colleagues by telling them how bad it was for you in the company where they are staying, and how good it will be in the new place of work. You shouldn’t express everything in your hearts to your ex-colleagues; it’s better to sincerely thank them for their cooperation. And even more so do it publicly. The founder and former operating director of Aviasales, Konstantin Kalinov, having decided to quit, commented on the unsightly circumstances of working for the company on his Facebook page, ending the post with the words “that’s it, I don’t relate to this anymore... I don’t have anything to do with it, I use Skyscanner and Booking.com.” Of course, this could not but have consequences for business. But the author of the posts also takes risks: you should not burn bridges, because one day you may decide to return. In 2011 co-president American exchange Nasdaq Adena Friedman decided to leave the company due to the desire to build her career more intensively. But three years later she returned back, “home”. In her opinion, this is only possible by maintaining good relations with former employers and colleagues.

One of the most unpleasant management procedures- dismissal. Okay, if you yourself decide to part with a careless employee: get ready, choose words and reasons. But it happens that a valuable employee writes a statement on at will. For a leader, this moment usually comes unexpectedly. What to do - try to hold on or let go in peace? This dilemma will be discussed in the article.

Why might a valuable employee want to leave?

First of all, when a personal statement appears on your desk, you need to figure out why such a decision was made. Various sources give almost the same reasons:

Resignation letter as a form of protest

One day, the director of company “A” received a resignation letter from an entire team of installers (5 people). Taking into account the fact that the company’s staff consists of 30 people, such a loss of qualified workers would be very noticeable. There was a frank conversation with each of those leaving. The reason for the mass exodus was the management style of the new boss, who was appointed a year ago in the hope that he would establish discipline and a system of effective work.

The director talked with the boss and asked him a simple question: “What way out of this situation do you see?” The boss blamed the installers, the secretary, the director himself, in general, everyone except himself. The director decided to fire the boss, the team remained working. After some time, another manager was appointed who found an approach to the installers, and the work went more efficiently.

Resignation notice as manipulation

Another example: a key employee comes in with a resignation letter and announces that his competitors are offering him more high salary. What do we do? The employee is truly valuable and brings profit to the company, let's raise his salary! Great, but where is the guarantee that in six months his appetite will not increase again? How can we tell if this is blackmail or if he really needs money and is he happy with everything else in our company?

Management experts recommend offering an increase in salary, but at the same time adding responsibilities, functions, subordinates, etc. If the employee agrees to take on the additional workload, we will breathe a sigh of relief and continue cooperation. If “bargaining” or whims begin, let him go in peace; attempts to retain the “star” usually do not end in anything good.

Personal reasons for dismissal

It happens that personal reasons related to the employee’s family also prompt resigning: the illness of a close relative, moving to another city, the birth of a grandchild, etc. Here, a personal conversation will help stop the dismissal and, perhaps, together you will be able to find an option to keep the employee and help him in resolving family issues. problems.

Of course, we are for philanthropy, but business first. the main objective- retain the employee and the established business processes that are associated with him. Acceptable solutions may be a flexible schedule or shortened working hours, additional workload to be able to hire a caregiver, or the appointment of an assistant - there are many options.

Should you keep the employee or let him go? You decide!

The situation with the dismissal of a key employee is always delicate, and the employer must weigh all the pros and cons, consider the situation and its consequences from all sides.

Here is a sign to help you. You can supplement it with arguments from your leadership experience.

Each dismissal situation must be analyzed and a decision made, taking into account all the nuances. Yes, it’s not easy, but who will do it if not the leader!?

How to protect your business from firing a key employee?

A true leader, like a pioneer, must always be prepared for these risks. Do not take the dismissal of a key figure personally, as a betrayal or a knife in the back. To be a little like Buddha or Solomon, who always knew that “this too will pass.”

To minimize risks and protect yourself, it is necessary to debug the system, write down all business processes so that a new person can get into it as quickly as possible and start working effectively. And, most importantly, take a closer look at key employees, know what they breathe, who has what problems, what goals, interests and fears.

Well, the height of professionalism of a manager is to foresee possible reasons for dismissal and eliminate them even before the employee has a desire to quit. Remember from Sun Tzu: “Being in order, one expects disorder; being calm, they expect unrest; this is control of the heart.”

What can be done?

The statistics are amazing: more than half of employees quit due to poor relationships with their superiors. Often, in such situations, managers do not understand what led to the loss of valuable personnel. How to understand the problem and avoid it in the future, read our article.

Any of these reasons is enough for a company employee to think about changing jobs and soon write a letter of resignation of his own free will.

It’s good if not the most competent employee wants to quit, but what should you do if a talented and promising employee is going to leave the company?

Once the employee’s decision has already been made, it’s unlikely that anything can be done: you need to start looking for the root of the problem, that is, look for the reasons why talented employees leave, what doesn’t suit them and how to change it?

A valuable employee is leaving! Is it worth holding on to? Video

All the reasons that company employees eventually begin to look for a new job can be divided into three large groups:

The main reasons for dismissals include factors related to the functions and responsibilities of the employee: for example, cases when he cannot cope with his duties, he lacks competence, or, on the contrary, he has long “outgrown” his position, but there are no prospects for development ;
The second group of main reasons for dismissal concerns the material component, as a rule, these are low wages, discrepancy between the volume of work performed and the salary, non-payment of bonuses, delays in payments, etc.;
And the third group of reasons for dismissals, which we will talk about in more detail in our material, concerns specifically the relationship between the employee and the team and management. And, according to various studies, more and more employees various organizations explain their departure from previous place work for precisely these reasons: the relationship with the authorities did not work out.

With the program for automating the work of the Business.Ru store, you can easily set plans for your subordinates and track the percentage of their implementation. The motivation system will become transparent and the seller will be able to understand for himself how much he earned and for what.

Mistakes of managers in working with subordinates

Manager Mistake #1: When Stress Levels Go Over the Top

Many employees themselves are ready to work seven days a week, stay late at work at their own request, but sooner or later, such a work regime inevitably leads to the fact that a person accumulates fatigue, and endless rush jobs, reports not submitted on time and “gathering” clouds lead to stress, depression and professional burnout.

Only a few of the most desperate specialists will be able to work for a long time in this state: sooner or later, every employee understands that as a reward for their desire to do everything at once, they not only did not receive more money, but simply received psychological stress.

It is this condition that ultimately pushes a person to look for another place with a more moderate pace of work.

Solution to the problem: only a truly “sensitive” and experienced leader in early stages will notice that the employee does not receive any moral satisfaction, but only endless stress.

Simple signs of this would be lack of sleep, being late, sudden changes in the employee’s mood, or simply a lack of desire to perform certain tasks.

If the manager does not want to end up losing valuable employee, he should try to reduce the load on him as much as possible: distribute the work that one person does among several, make deadlines more “lenient,” give the person more days and hours of rest, and try to praise him more for successes and criticize him less for mistakes.

Thanks to such methods, the employee will be able to get out of the permanent state of stress, finally take a deep breath, calm down and look around.

If this is not done, then soon you can expect the employee to start looking for another, quieter job.

Manager Mistake #2: Impossibility of Career Growth

It often turns out that the promised career growth was just a ploy to “lure” a talented employee to work for the company. This should not be allowed under any circumstances!

According to various surveys, approximately a third of company employees are ready to quit if they realize that there are no prospects waiting for them in the near future. career growth! Every leader should think about this.

Solution to the problem: first of all, if the manager knows that the new employee “does not have a chance” for a new position and promotion during the work process, then there is no need to declare this at the interview, that is, simply deceiving the candidate in order to interest him.

A talented worker for whom truly important factor is a promotion, it is still worth promoting in this position.

Let this progress along career ladder will be simply “nominal”, for example, instead of the leading specialist of the department, you will make the employee the second deputy head of the department in order to satisfy the employee’s ambitions and keep him in the new job.

Another important piece of advice in this regard is that the manager must create conditions so that the store has a system of career advancement, for example, by certifying personnel, conducting training, and assessing the performance of the most promising personnel.

This is necessary so that every employee knows what to strive for and what to work for.

Manager's mistake No. 3: unfavorable atmosphere in the team and a tyrant boss

The statistics are truly amazing: according to surveys, today more than half of employees quit due to poor relationships with their superiors!

And the saddest thing is that the vast majority of managers simply do not notice that they are going too far in communicating with their subordinates.

But you only need to remember one thing: not a single employee will stay long in a store with an unfavorable atmosphere in the team and a tyrant boss.

That is why today there is a high turnover of personnel, because every person is looking for a place in which he will be as comfortable as possible to work morally and psychologically, and there will be as little “pressure” from management as possible.

Solution to the problem: Not every manager will be able to admit the fact that he goes too far in communicating with his subordinates: most of them simply do not notice this, continuing their tyranny.

But if turnover in your store remains consistently high, the root cause of this should be sought not in “incompetent staff”, but in management, because a good place people don't leave work.

Any conflict in a team can be corrected, and relationships with colleagues can be improved, but if the boss is a tyrant, then working with such a person is extremely difficult.

A smart boss is a boss who knows how to combine leadership and humanity, who is happy about the victories of his subordinates, is always ready to help them, listens to them, and knows how to motivate in word and deed.

It is for the sake of such a leader that subordinates are ready to work better and are actively involved in new projects.

Manager's mistake No. 4: uncomfortable working conditions

We talked about the unfavorable atmosphere in the team above, but now we will talk about no less

A common reason for dismissals is dissatisfaction with working conditions.

This includes dissatisfaction with the work schedule, the distance of the office from home, and even the air temperature in the room.

Solution to the problem: Many employees are not happy when their work schedule is changed from their usual to another: for example, not from 8 to 17, but from 10 to 19.

This cannot be done without approval, because employees have their own lives outside the office walls, their own daily schedule, and things to do.

Many workers quit after the office changes location - commuting several hours a day is a disaster for many. It is also important that the equipment in the office works properly, that air conditioning is installed in the hot summer season, and that heaters work in winter.

Listen to everything that employees tell you about certain inconveniences at work - this is really important today. Solve all problems immediately and without postponing them, and also good advice There will be the creation of an “Employee Satisfaction Scale”.

Periodically conducting an appropriate anonymous survey public opinion in a team, a competent manager will always know about pressing problems and how satisfied his employees are with working conditions.

Manager's mistake No. 5: inappropriate salary level

Another most common reason for layoffs today is a lack of compliance with the level of wages the volume of work performed.

In other words, when an employee does everything “from start to finish” and is a truly competent and promising specialist, but instead of a salary increase he is “fed” with promises, then many of them decide to quit.

As soon as it comes to raising wages, bosses, as a rule, either laugh it off, or postpone the conversation, or remain silent.

If the case concerns an employee who unmotivatedly demands an increase in salary, then the boss is not afraid of his dismissal, but what to do if a talented and talented person asks for a salary increase? needed by the company employee?

Solution to the problem:“Without regard” to increase the salaries of all employees who demand it is, of course, wrong, but losing valuable personnel for this reason is also wrong. The right solution would be to introduce bonus systems for fulfilling the plan.

Also, in order not to lose valuable employees due to low salaries, the manager must constantly monitor wages on average in the industry, index his wages depending on the “trends” of the market.

If an employee really, in the opinion of management, deserves a salary increase and is a valuable personnel, then his salary should be raised.

If there is no opportunity to increase the employee’s salary, then it is best to explain all the reasons, tell everything as it is - honestly, stipulating the exact terms in which this salary can be increased in the future.

An individual approach to employees will help you find a service to automate the work of a Business.Ru store. Enter a personal daily routine for each employee and increase their loyalty to the company. But at the same time, you can always check the to-do list of your subordinates and, if necessary, adjust it.

Manager's mistake No. 6: monotony of assigned tasks

The TOP 7 mistakes that managers make during relationships with their subordinates also include monotony. It is precisely because of the lack of development, interesting projects, monotony of tasks performed, and routine that today the most talented and promising personnel are leaving.

Nobody wants to sit in a boring job, especially a promising and ambitious specialist: even a high salary will not keep a talented person in such a workplace for long.

By forcing a “cool” specialist to do useless things and plunging him into the “swamp” of monotony, the manager is simply pushing him to quit.

Solution to the problem: no manager will be able to retain a promising specialist without allowing him to solve new problems, participate in interesting projects, offer something new and implement this new thing.

Offer to such a talented worker new position, expanded functionality, solving diverse problems, help him in his quest to create new things.

An excellent solution here would also be to send such a specialist for retraining or advanced training courses.

It's no secret that any successful company relies on patient and responsible employees. They are the protectors against troubles, market fluctuations and crises. They are the ones who know what and how to do correctly. They can work on their days off, train newcomers, take on leadership responsibilities and help with valuable ideas at the right time. If your “golden employee” decides to leave you, you should know that problems have begun in your company. In this article, you will learn how to keep a valuable employee from leaving and prevent similar problems in the future.

Main reasons for dismissal

But then, one day, your key employee writes a letter of resignation. What to do? Responsible and serious workers never take a step into the void. They have been planning their departure from the company for months, looking for work,... It will not be possible to retain such an employee with empty chatter, since his statement is a formality, which is the final touch in the process of changing jobs. But if you give a person guarantees and a clear vision of possible changes regarding pay and working conditions, career growth, your chances of retaining a valuable employee increase.

First, find out the true motive for his decision. If a person opens up to you and reveals his reasons for leaving, then you will have a chance to influence his decision.

There are three main reasons for dismissal:

low salary;
poor working conditions;
lack of professional recognition and career growth.

How to prevent valuable employees from leaving

Dismissal good employee, indicates that the situation in the company is out of control. Employees are devoted to themselves, they are not monitored, managers do not communicate with them, all their discontent and grievances remain with them. The employee sees that no one needs his problems, how to earn more money, he doesn’t know how to climb the career ladder, that’s also a question. What to do? The decision has been made - I need to change jobs, maybe they will appreciate my abilities and allow me to realize my potential.

The company's management must monitor in order to respond in a timely manner to dissatisfaction and problems that arise. This way you can prevent the departure of valuable employees long before they have the desire to quit completely and irrevocably.

Basic methods for retaining valuable employees

If your valuable employee has already decided to take such a step, it will not be easy to retain him, but there is a chance. There are two methods to retain a valuable employee:

Method of intimidation and promises. It is based on intimidating the employee with the uncertainty and difficulties that he may encounter when searching for a job. For example: “You’ve been working here for five years. You know everyone. You feel at home here. Why do you need complications? In company X, for example, the worst employee of the month is fired based on sales results. Have you heard of this? We don't have that. The company has invested in you in training, be grateful for it!” or “Come on, don’t rush! We have a vacancy about to open, we will consider your candidacy immediately!” or “Are you sure that you will earn as much in your new place as you do here? Are you sure that the transition is deliberate and you won’t regret it?”

This method works and is actively used in many companies. But this approach only works on soft people, and not on everyone. If an employee is confident in himself and his abilities, he cannot be stopped by such methods. The method works great for those who succumbed to momentary emotions or the influence of someone else’s opinion and thoughtlessly wrote a statement. Such arguments (see above) sober up the employee, a sense of harsh reality returns to him, and temporary indignation subsides.

Method of action and loyalty. If you really want to retain a valuable employee, you need to provide guarantees that will make the person think and actually stay with the company. Having identified the motive for dismissal, you can put pressure on this point and fix everything.

For example: “Okay, you’re unhappy with your salary, we’ll fix that. I apologize for the fact that we unfairly assessed your contribution to the company - we will correct that too. Let you take the application, and at the end of the day I will be ready to make you an offer, which will take effect tomorrow. I promise you will like it! Then we’ll discuss everything.” or “I agree that working late is draining and demotivating. It is very important to us that you continue to work within the walls of our company. We are ready to review your schedule and make it more flexible. We’ll redistribute the workload and provide assistants.”- this method of action and guarantees.

Beautiful, isn't it? The employer uses the method of action and loyalty when, indeed, with the departure of an employee, the company faces collapse and large financial losses. In fact, the company becomes a hostage of such an employee until a “cheaper” candidate appears.

There are several opinions regarding monetary motivation. Many HR argue that if an employee is dissatisfied with his salary, then there is no need to rush to raise it, you need to tell him what his salary consists of - a social package, corporate events, trainings. Then make sure that the salary is really the market average, and if it is lower, then, of course, level it out.

There is also an opinion that monetary motivation is one of the strongest for low and medium-paid professions. A person’s dependence on money forces him to work for two people. But when he works for three people and is paid as one, even the most patient employee will not last long. If the employee really has a valuable status, pay him as much as you can, you know that he will work for this money in full. Don’t let such specialists run away from you with resentment, powerful anti-advertising and clients.

In positions where wages amount to thousands of dollars, monetary motivation stops working, as the chronic dependence on money disappears. A person no longer measures his benefits in money, but in higher categories, for example: internal implementation, ambitions, achievements, personal comfort.

Conclusion

Despite your best efforts, it will be difficult for you to change the employee’s decision because he no longer trusts you, and may even be angry with the company. But the methods and methods described in this article will help you do everything possible to keep a valuable employee from leaving and prevent staff turnover.

Now I will try to consider the opposite situation. A subordinate came to you and expressed a desire to leave your organization. We assume that you need this employee as a qualified personnel, or his departure may destabilize the situation in the entrusted unit, or there is some other very important reason to persuade him to stay.

I’ll make a reservation right away: if a person has already firmly decided everything for himself, mentally burned all the bridges to retreat, and agreed to get another job, then it will be extremely difficult to convince him. Unless, for example, you get on your knees, tearfully begging to stay...

Even if the appearance of a resigning employee was not part of your plans and came as a surprise, then, first of all, you need to approach this issue humanely and remember that the employee will not work for you forever anyway. Sooner or later, the moment of dismissal may come, and you will not be able to do anything about it. At most, move the date of departure to a later or indefinite date.

So, after reflecting on the situation, weighing all the pros and cons, you came to the conclusion that it is not time yet. As a result of finding out the reasons for the employee’s dismissal, you understand that he is simply fed up with work, or he has not yet decided on future plans, or that he is going to leave you because of a trivial, completely solvable issue...

In general, you see in the employee a “shadow of doubt” about the correctness of his action. This is your chance. Only on doubt can you play and convince a person of your decision. I would say that from a “spark” of doubt you can always fan a whole “fire”.

The main thing is to choose the right arguments and shake the decision-making scales. I tried to outline the concepts of loosening techniques in the post How to impose your idea on your subordinates.

Let me give you an example.

An employee came to you and brought you resignation letter at your own request. It would be stupid if you simply sign the application without asking the reasons. If I were an employee, I would think that no one really needs me here, and I would be even more convinced of the correctness of my decision.

So we need to find out reason. It is important to remember that the cause may only be a consequence of another problem, which means that what the employee told you is just the tip of the iceberg. To find out the root cause, you will have a long conversation, but by hook or by crook you need to get to the stumbling block - the main issue tormenting the employee.

If you are able to resolve this issue, your authority will grow even more in the eyes of the employee, and he himself, having received an alternative solution to the problem that was tormenting him (which was the reason for his dismissal), will kindly agree to work under you for some more time.

One of the most common reasons desire to quit - search " best place“, the same reason can be equated to the state of “everything is enough.” In this case, you can try to draw prospects for a new job and compare them with your current job.

Believe me, there are many arguments in favor of him staying: a familiar, established team, long-understood principles of work, no need to retrain or retrain, a clear and predictable remuneration system, motivation systems, good schedule, overtime if possible, etc.

What's in the new place? New sensations? And how long will they last - a month, two? And then again new job? After all, with each new place of work it becomes more and more difficult to surprise us, and less and less time is spent on adaptation. Being in constant search is not an option.

How then to solve the problem of obtaining new sensations? Very simply – HOBBY! Any person accumulates negativity from work, and sooner or later he stops giving his all in the workplace. What for? This won’t surprise anyone, the manager won’t even praise you, and if you can’t see the difference, why bother… spoil your nerves? But energy needs to be spent somewhere, because we all dream about something, we all want to do great things.

And you need to start small. In your free time, you can try to implement some of your own projects, which in the future can become a source of good income. Or go hunting with friends, but who knows what else you can do? After all, admit to yourself that there is something in the world that brings you pleasure.

So pay attention to THIS in your free time. Simply doing nothing on the weekend means giving up and accepting whatever may happen in your life. A rolling stone gathers no moss. Get off the couch and go do THIS through strength. Later you will realize that THIS actually gives you pleasure, and as a result of such personal work you have a feeling of satisfaction, and not of futility, as in an official job.

Again, there are a lot of reasons that lead an employee to the idea of quitting. It is impossible to consider everyone, but the manager must be ready to identify them and, most importantly, solve them, because if he does not offer a practical solution, then he will not see the employee. And a qualified personnel will go to raise virgin soil in another office.

In any case, successful or not, the leader must understand that the precarious balance in which superiors and subordinates find themselves is temporary. And you shouldn't kill yourself because of failures. If you didn’t manage to dissuade this employee from firing, try your hand next time when someone else “breaks down”...