Why people should get fired

I just heard a story about a guy who told one of his employees who was wearing jeans to work on Casual Friday that he quote:

"Just set his career back 3 months."

Fair enough I guess, take your holidays, burn the summer and you're right back on track career wise. I won't say where, who, or what about the idiot that said it because I don't want the people of France to fire me. More importantly that is not what I am writing about. I just want to say that if your boss judges you soley by you Friday attire, find another job.

I was watching TV and a nameless morning show went through a summer work wardrobe series for guys and girls to help you avoid looking unprofessional. Again, I have never been rich enough or cared enough to worry too much about my attire. I don't dress like a bum, but nobody will ever mistake me for being Italian (fancy cloths reference).

So while watching this show I tied it to the "jeans setting back your career" comment, I thought about what I would fire someone for, other than the obvious laziness and incompetence which is apparently forgivable as long as you don't wear jeans. Put your money where your mouth is, I said to myself, why would you can someone for non-performance related reasons?

I have already written about bathroom behaviour and I will stand by those statements. Certain behaviour in there should get you canned...sorry, but as for my number one reason to fire someone not related to performance (as dress code is never related to performance, in fact the better they dress the lazier they are guaranteed. They believe looking the part is sufficient.)

Elevator usage.

That was out of nowhere, but I promise it is going somewhere.

I would fire anyone who got onto a full elevator on the ground floor and pressed 2.

I am not kidding. Show up to work in a bathing suit for all I care. Don't join in on things, do your job and go home. Perfect. But if you get onto an elevator after someone, don't even ask what I would do if I held the door for someone who did this, and press the second floor, I will pass you a pink slip.

I think you could pretty much draw ever conclusion necessary from that simple action to figure out that that person is not the employee you need.

A) They are lazy.

This is a fact. Most of the time, in all well designed buildings, you have to walk past the stairs to get to the elevator. Basically, the walking you do to get to the elevator is on par with the effort required to walk up twenty steps, but this is where laziness comes into play. These people genuinely don't want to put in the effort. That should speak volumes about what they are going to bring to the table in a work setting.

B) They are wasting the time of everyone in the building.

You are going to be trapped in that elevator for an extra 30 seconds to a minute because of that asshole. That is every day, 250 days a year, call it 30 seconds per day, 125 minutes annually, rounded down to 2 hours per person every year that fucker burns.

C) This is just a symptom of something else

This is a much more general point, but "Generally" speaking these people smoke, or over eat or have health issues related to their laziness. They are wasting time and lazy, but they are also more than likely abusing sick leave, or killing an hour everyday smoking in front of your office.

So to me it is simple, fuck wardrobe, fire people who use the elevator to go up or down one flight. You want to set your career back three months with me? Press 2.