I’ve seen posts on various subreddits from employees who are at risk of losing their jobs for minor latenesses or errors. As a small business person it blows my mind that an employer would fire someone for being ten minutes late a couple of times in a month, or for making a minor one-time mistake.

I have a small staff of eight people, and my attitude is that as long as the work is getting done I don’t have a problem if my employees are fallible human beings who have things come up in their lives. A few minutes late — don’t worry about it, just make sure your stuff is done by deadline. Need to take your child to the doctor? Cool, just let me know in advance.

We’re in a creative field (publishing) and our jobs are all office jobs, so perhaps it is different in other industries, such as retail or hospitality.

Don’t get me wrong, I have fired people over the years, but only for long-term serious issues. We had one designer who repeatedly came to work visibly stoned. And one sales person who was okay in the mornings, but apparently was drinking a lot at lunch. Also a sales person who couldn’t meet our very reasonable sales targets. All of those people I had to fire.

One of my biggest pain points is hiring. It’s really hard to find people who have the requisite skills and can get along with the rest of the team. I just can’t see firing people for being human, not just because I feel it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s such a royal pain in the butt to find replacements.

Just wondering, do other business owners feel the same way as I do?