There are times when a senior level business executive is fired and he is still not fired. Well, a conflicting & contradictory thought. Let me explain – Have you come across an organizational announcement saying that .. “ Mr. New Smarty has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer effective 1st March. He will take over from Mr. Big Oldy the incumbent Chief Financial Officer, who would now look after key strategic initiatives at the group level.” If you are able to comprehend the message in the above statement – you can easily grasp that there is a very high probability that Mr. Big Oldy, has been cleanly eliminated from his position as the Chief Financial Officer, and big bosses possibly want him out at the earliest.
Such announcements, comes quite often when an organization is restructuring or is in a process of a major overhaul. Ideally, the guy on the firing line is given signals once the top guys (the board & the promoters) have the clarity in their head. Now, in case the good old guy is able to find a job or decide on his next career move in the stipulated time frame, the instance is called a resignation. However, in case the Big Oldy is unable to plan on his or her next move, an announcement on the lines of the sample provided above gets released.
In fact there can be other variations as well:
“in his new role he would be championing key strategic initiatives related to …..”
“he would be leading initiatives related to bringing in seamless integrations of organizational processes in a phased manner…”
“he would be driving culture building initiatives for the business “
“he would be working on special projects along with the MD’s office..”
Other variations may depend on the creativity of the HR team members or the members of the bog bosses office.
Why do they need to send such messages ? Some reasons I can think of:
To respect the employee, his or her seniority and to ensure that his/her interests are protected in the job market. Getting fired is bad. Being asked to leave is bad. Normally such decisions are made if a professional messes up on performance or delivery, or the management does not find him relevant for future course of the organizations journey. A good chance, that the firing decision may or may not be (100 %) because of the individuals performance and conduct. The decision may also have come because of changing organizational requirements. In such cases, it makes sense for good organizations to allow a professional on proposed hit list to be able to plan his exit transition smoothly.
To ensure that the management don’t sound contradictory in their stand. So if on the day of Big Oldy’s joining or during some leadership meet, the CEO was extremely appreciative of Big Oldy’s capability – it may not make sense for them to announce that they had to let him go. It’s better to sugar coat the message, so as the management’s interests and the professionals interests is protected. Therefore normally, the transitioning role sounds of strategy, key initiatives, special projects, etc.
At a senior level most smart people thrive on power, and the power is clearly reflected in a super active strategic role that also has an amazing degree of operational control. If one is shunted from the key role with a good degree of power and operational control into some sidey – non existent role – how long do you think will some capable guy want to continue with the organization. The business realizes their objective of cleaning up without making a mess, thereby also protecting their employer brand to some extent.
At times the thought behind such announcements may be some genuine plan for a new strategic initiative, however you get to realize the intent in about 3 – 6 months. If the gentleman exits, then that was the intent. If he continues and is still smiling, then may be he is actually on some new project or key initiative.
Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.