How to deal with an unqualified employee who is impossible to fire
Strict company policies and unhelpful management often prevent managers from firing unqualified employees who lack basic skills. Dealing with this leaves managers stuck spending hours creating remedial training plans while the employee shows no progress.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Creating extensive training plans and weekly knowledge assessmentsDid this help you?
- 2Writing up counseling reviews and documenting all employee progressDid this help you?
- 3Considering buying online boot camps or instructional training materials to prove support was providedDid this help you?
- 4Filing fair housing complaintsDid this help you?
- 5Contacting code complianceDid this help you?
- 6Trying to reach higher-level corporate contacts or property ownersDid this help you?
- 7Putting employees on improvement plans (PIPs)Did this help you?
- 8Renting about it online or venting to peersDid this help you?
- 9Giving verbal and written warningsDid this help you?
- 10Subconsciously self-sabotaging job performance to force a reason to quit or be terminatedDid this help you?
- 11Resigning and moving to a new firm or industryDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“A couple years ago, I was promoted to Assistant Manager at a small IT office. I was immediately put in charge of new hires despite having no experience with it.”source ↗
“It's now been a year and a half, and the employee has shown no progress to understanding how we operate.”source ↗
“The problem is, this is taking up a lot of my time. I've had to create a full training plan that essentially starts at basic A+ level knowledge”source ↗
“Shouldn't I be able to fire them on the basis that they do not have the basic knowledge required and expected to do the job?”source ↗
“What in the world does it take for a large PM company (or property owner) to fire managers?”source ↗
“Both the property manager in the regional manager won’t do anything to stop the other people from being unprofessional.”source ↗
“What is it gonna take for there to be discipline in personnel changes?”source ↗
“This is the part of employing others I truly dread.”source ↗
“im at the stage where i have started subconsciously self sabotaging my job just to gtfo”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 9Why is handling employee relations so overwhelming?
- 4Employee onboarding workflow for small teams
- 2How to manage an older employee with more experience who undermines you
- 6Why do employees lack initiative and need constant hand-holding?
- 5Fired after trying to fix a dysfunctional workplace
- 46How to deal with uncooperative coworkers who don't do their work