Over my 25 or so years in HR I have sat across a desk and “fired” hundreds of people – maybe more than a thousand. There have been dozens if not hundreds of reasons. My memory is not what it used to be, but I am pretty sure that the reason was never risking nuclear armaggedon. I am pretty sure that it is a good reason to fire some people. Sometimes, terminating people is important to manage risk. The risk of the internal labor market percievice coddling poor performers and concluding that it is OK to slack, is one. The risk that you become a dumbed down organiation and uncompetitive in key markets because of an abudance of poor performers is another. Flying nuclear missles over your own country by mistake is a third. The decision to terminate is partially about fairness; it is just as much about HR risk management.

See the full article in the Wall Street Journal, “Gates Ousts Top Leaders of Air Force After Gaffe“  See an exerpt below:

Gates Ousts Top Leaders Of Air Force After Gaffes

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
June 6, 2008; Page A1

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates ousted the Air Force’s two top officials after a series of gaffes, including accidentally shipping ballistic-missile fuses to Taiwan and flying a nuclear-laden B-52 over the U.S.

The forced resignations mark an attempt by Mr. Gates to use his remaining time in office to shake up the service, which he believes has failed to adapt to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senior Pentagon officials said the move marked the first time a defense secretary had simultaneously fired the two top leaders of a service like the Air Force. They said Mr. Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, felt the recent mistakes merited severe penalties.

Associated Press

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynn (left), accompanied by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, testifies on Capitol Hill in March.

The immediate trigger for the resignations of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Gen. Michael Moseley, its chief of staff, was the March disclosure that the Air Force had accidentally sent four ballistic-missile fuses to Taiwan 18 months earlier, a discovery that infuriated Chinese officials.

Mr. Gates was livid over the Taiwan incident and ordered a high-level investigation. Navy Adm. Kirkland Donald, who led the probe, presented his findings to Mr. Gates and Adm. Mullen recently, and Mr. Wynne and Gen. Moseley offered their resignations in separate meetings Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Mr. Gates said the Taiwan incident represented “a significant failure to ensure the security of sensitive military components” and was part of “a pattern of poor performance” by the Air Force. “This incident took place within the larger environment of declining Air Force nuclear mission focus and performance,” he said.

Mr. Gates’s surprising move adds to the contrast with the combative term of his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, who was often accused of failing to hold senior officers accountable for scandals such as the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

…

In addition to the Taiwan flub, two other incidents tarnished the Air Force’s top leadership. In August, a B-52 was accidentally loaded with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Ground personnel at Barksdale were unaware the plane carried nuclear weapons and the missiles sat unguarded for several hours. It took more than a day for the Air Force to discover the mistake.

Do you fire enough people? Do you look reality squarely in the eye enough to make the right calculation on weighing the risk of acting against the risk of not acting. Do you measure the risk of litigation against the risk of stagnation. I know I need to think a bit more about these questions.

In: Employee Relations, How to do HR, Multiple Markets, Talent Management | tags: air force, Fired, Talent Management. | #