[gameprogrammer] Re: Fire on the first day?

If it had been the case that I hired him from another company I would have waited longer. He was unemployed from his own choosing to begin with, so I feel less bad about it.
From a cost perspective, waiting a week is $1000 in salary costs, plus another $1000 from my own lost time to support him, plus going behind schedule, and waiting another week to hire someone else, and 95% odds are I wouldn't have gotten anything for it.
It sounds harsh, but the gentle route is also the way to fail as a small developer. One of the first guys I hired was from the Ukraine. I tried to provide motivation, support, training, and overlooked warning signs and red flags, etc. I thought 3 months was a fair probation period, so just kept trying to improve the situation. In the end I waited two months, fired him, got a week's useful work, and was 2 months and $10K behind schedule because of it. The only reason it didn't put me out of business was that I planned to go overbudget from the start.
I can't afford to do that again. I've learned the hard way to cut my losses early. 

Leighton Haynes wrote:

Wow. Firing after 1 day, that's pretty low. I hope you weren't rude
enough to hire him away from another company to then fire the poor
blighter on the first day. I have to say, I think it's one of the most
pathetic things I've ever heard. There is no reality in which one day
is enough time to work out how good/bad someone is. The only reason
someone should be first on the first day is gross misconduct. 
If you can't afford to give him a week to work stuff out, you can't
afford to be hiring people period.

Leighton....


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