【英语生活】我能解雇女职员吗？

By I head a small financial services company. We do not employ many women and would like to employ more. However, one of our female analysts is poor at her job and unpopular. If I fire her, I'm concerned she is the type to sue on discrimination grounds – even though she doesn't have a case. Also, firing her might make it look as if this is a bad place for women to work. Any ideas?

Chairman, male, 58



Answers

This woman is both feeble and unpleasant. If she were just the first, then you might consider keeping her. All but the smallest companies can tolerate a dog or two. But as she is also unpopular, there is nothing for it: she must go.

However, you are right to be worried about the vindictive legal action she could take, and also right that her sex makes a big difference. If she were a man, you would simply risk being sued for unfair dismissal – and those cases do not make the headlines and the payouts they command are small.

In any event, protecting yourself against such a case is relatively easy. You can't fire anyone out of the blue for poor performance but, as long as you issue warnings and give the person a chance to get better, you can fire them after a few months when they don't.

The woman thing makes it much more risky. All she needs is to show that there might be a case for discrimination and you could find the onus of proof is on you. You would then have to show that you had not discriminated – which is almost impossible to do.

There are three things that make me fear your case is weak. You hardly employ any women, which isn't a good start. The fact that yours is a small company means you are unlikely to have sent your people on tedious, costly, diversity awareness courses, which are a legal insurance policy against this sort of thing. And if in the past you have given this woman positive appraisals then that will count against you too.

You might get away with it; you might not. If you don't and she wins her case it could not only be expensive (in the UK, at least, there is no cap on payouts in these cases), it would not look pretty to have a sex discrimination story in the pages of this newspaper.

If I were you, I would do what employers are doing quietly behind the scenes all the time. Take her to one side and offer her a lot of money, a face-saving story and a great reference, and usher her gently out of the door.

This may be costly (and distasteful in that incompetence is being rewarded) but at least you get rid of her with no ugliness and no risk.

The moral is that employers should think twice before hiring women and be sure to waste time and money on diversity courses. The whole system is less than ideal but that isn't your immediate problem.

FIRE YOUR WOMAN

We went through the same problem at a more senior level last month. I had put off the evil day, but finally booted her out and found efficiency, morale and customer complaints all improved overnight. Her female direct report came up to me and said we should have done it sooner. As for the legal niceties, we paid her off. It was the best investment we ever made – payback in less than one week.

Manager, male, 46

HIRE MORE WOMEN

Before dismissing her, I would employ at least two more women and only then start giving warnings to this female analyst.

Manager, female, 27

IGNORE GENDER
Management is no place for wimps. Get her to improve her performance or replace her. Soon. That you consider her gender speaks volumes about why your company does not employ more women. Professionals expect themselves and those around them to succeed or fail based on their accomplishments, not their gender. What you are doing now is itself sexual discrimination.

Leader, male, 50s

GIVE HER A CHANCE

Explain to her how she is underperforming (in a factual, unemotive way) and agree a plan that will bring her to the required performance standard. Document the meeting and her subsequent progress. If she persists you will have everything you need to justify letting her go. The fact that she is a woman is not relevant – or shouldn't be!

Manager, female, 40s

SECRET SEXIST
Why are you so worried about her suing over discrimination? Could it be because you know she has grounds? Why are there hardly any women in your company? In my experience the most sexist managers are the ones who claim that they champion women. I've been in the same position as this woman. I still believe I was discriminated against and wish I had taken action.

Ex-manager, female, 35

提问我掌管着一家小型金融服务公司。我们公司的女性员工并不多，也愿意雇用更多女职员。然而，我们有一位女性分析师，工作表现很差，又不招人喜欢。如果我解雇她，我担心她会以性别歧视为由提出诉讼——虽然根本没有这回事。同时，如果把她解雇，可能会使我们公司看起来很不适合女性工作。您有何高见？

董事长，男性，58岁

回答

这个女人工作又差，又令人讨厌。如果她只占第一条，那你或许可以考虑留着她。除了最小的公司以外，几乎所有公司都能容忍一两个没用的人。但是，如果她同时还令人讨厌，那就没有什么好说的了：她必须走。

不过，你是对的，她的确可能采取报复性法律手段，而她的性别问题也的确关系重大。如果她是一个男人，你顶多会遭遇“不公平解雇”的指控——这种案子不会成为重大新闻，而且他们索要的补偿也很少。

无论如何，防止自己摊上这种官司相对比较容易。你不能因为某位员工表现差劲就突然宣布解雇，但是，只要你提出了警告，给这位员工一个改进的机会，如果几个月之后还没有改进，你就可以解雇了。

女性问题使这种做法的风险大了很多。她所要做的，就是表明你的行动可能存在歧视，而你则会发现，所有取证的责任都在你身上。于是，你就不得不表明你没有歧视过她——要做到这点，几乎不可能。

我担心，有三点对你很不利。首先一点，你几乎没有雇用过女性员工。你的公司规模很小，这个事实意味着你以前不太可能对员工推行冗长乏味、成本高昂的多元化培训课，而这种路线乃是对抗这类事情合法而保险的政策。而且，如果过去你曾给过这个女人某些积极的评价，也会成为对你不利的证据。

你也许可以侥幸逃脱处罚，也许逃不掉。如果你没不幸让她赢了官司，则不仅可能会很费钱（至少在英国，这种案子的支出可没有上限），而且还会成为本报某篇性别歧视案例报道的主角，从而颜面尽失。

如果我是你，我就会采用雇主们经常偷偷摸摸做的勾当。把她叫到一边，给她一大笔钱，编造一些为她保留颜面的话，再写一些很棒的评语，和颜悦色地把她送出门。

这么做也许成本很高（而且看到无能的人受到犒赏，也会让人恶心），但是，至少你除掉了她，没闹任何别扭，也不会带来任何风险。

道德问题是雇主在雇用女性之前应该三思的问题，而且，一定要浪费些时间和金钱搞一搞多样化路线。整个体系也许不那么理想，但那不是你迫切需要解决的问题。

解雇她！

上个月，我们也经历了同样的问题，而且我们的这个女同事级别更高。我也曾下不了狠心，但最终还是把她撵走了。结果发现，公司的效率、士气和客户投诉问题一夜之间全都有了改观。她的女上司告诉我，说我们应该早点儿这么干。说到法律上的细节，我们给了她不少钱。这是我们做过的最好的投资——不到一周时间就收到了回报。

经理，男性，46岁

雇用更多女员工

在解雇她之前，我至少会再雇用两名女职员，到那时候再开始向这名女分析师提出警告。

经理，女性，27岁

不用考虑性别问题

管理容不得无能之辈。要么让她改善业绩，要么把她换掉。要快。你考虑她的性别问题，充分解释了你们公司没有雇用更多女性的原因。专业人士希望自己和周围的人都凭借才能论成败，而不是性别。你现在的做法，本身就是性别歧视。

领导者，男性，50多岁

给她一个机会

向她解释她的表现如何糟糕（用实事求是、不动感情的方式），然后，双方制定一个计划，让她可以重新达到所要求的业绩标准。记录下这次会面和她随后的进步。如果她一切如故，你就有充分的理由让她走了。这和她是不是女性无关——或者说，应该无关！

经理，女性，40多岁

暗中的男性至上

你为什么如此担心她起诉性别歧视呢？是不是因为你知道她有根据？为什么你的公司几乎没有女性呢？以我的经验判断，最男性至上的经理人，正是那些嘴里喊着维护女权的人。我曾遭遇与这个女人同样的处境。我至今仍然认为自己受到了性别歧视，真后悔当初没有起诉。

前经理人，女性，35岁

译者/徐柳