New York SBDC Research Network

From Startups and venture capital : I recently read a story here titled "We fired our top talent. Best decision we ever made..." Let's dissect this because there is so much more than meets the eye here. Presumably, if you have read the story, you understand that the author describes a problem worker that he has dubbed “Rick”. Rick is the local genius with a ton of domain knowledge about their product and a member of the core development staff for this product... Personally, I'm of the opinion that if you find these people and you are in the process of interviewing them, regardless of whatever modicum of talent they have, they aren't worth your time because of the loss of morale and teamwork they bring to the team. This is actually something brought up in the story itself — about how Rick ignored team meetings and belittled his co-workers. About how after Rick left, productivity soared and they managed to pull together to save the day! The author does this to

There are many reasons that companies fire employees. If you take a look at the stories about getting fired shared by About.com readers you'll find a variety of reasons people were fired from their job, including for posting on Facebook , for having a bad attitude , and for stealing , just to mention a few. Unfortunately, for many fired workers, in most cases employers don't need a reason to fire you unless you are covered by a bargaining agreement or employment contract. It's called employment at will. Employment at will means that an employee can be terminated at any time without any reason and without notice. That said, most employers won't fire an employee without cause. Most firings are termination for cause, which means the employee is fired for a specific reason. More from About Careers .