Money Moral Dilemma: Should Naomi fire Annie?

Ebenezer_Screwj

If Naomi wants to remain a successful magazine editor - yes.
There is no room for sentiment or passengers in business, Annie is clearly not up to the mark.

Talent

Yep, she's gone. You cannot run a business like that. You can still help her out as a friend but not as an employee

Family_Saver

Warn then fire if there is no no improvement. She is in business and not a charity!

awehla

Naomi should treat Annie like any other employee. So if it was someone else and she would sack them then she should sack Annie following the proper procedures of course. It's difficult but that's what happens when you mix friendship with business.

jenniewb

She should take Annie aside and have a quite word with her. Maybe explain that although she is aware that Annie is a great writer, that right now may have been too soon to come back to work and that maybe she needs to do something less pressing and more on a teamworking level where she can bounce off people rather then working alone until she gains the stegnth to go back to writing alone.

I'd also make it clear to Naomi that friends and work are tow different things and shouldn't really be mixed. The best thing Naomi could have done would have just simply to have been there to 'hold Annie's hand' until things felt easier.

matchmade

If Naomi and Annie were such friends, surely infallible female intution should have have warned Naomi what was going to happen? She should have been pre-warned only to hire Annie on a contract basis, i.e. she only gets paid for work performed. A work-only contract would also protect Naomi to some degree if there were accusations of favouritism in the appointment. If the work's not being done, she needs to sit down with Annie and point out that she can't pay her if deadlines are being missed, whatever the excuses. Then she needs to ask if Annie can actually do the job after all, and suggest some alternative lines of work and sources of income. Naomi doesn't need actually to say "you're fired" and damage the relationship: she can let Annie down gently by restricting the amount of work (and pay) by persuading her to approach it on a "take each day as it comes" basis.

If that doesn't work, she should just fire the skivving cow, or hire her former husband and watch the sparks fly (joke!).

JayD

I think Naomi should giver her a pep talk plus a warning and a few more weeks to shape up. That way it isn't sudden and Annie has time to get her act together. She is bound to find it hard to start with, not only settling into a new job but also coping with a lot of emotional stress too. The pep talk/warning should help her focus and only then will Naomi know if Annie is going to be able to do the job.

So, in short - Naomi should talk to her and give Annie a dealine to improve by. If there is no improvement by that dealine, then Annie should be given notice.

RuthnJasper

I do sympathise with Annie, as I suffered from TERRIBLE discrimination and abuse in my old job due to my depression. However - and this is a big difference to the MMD case - my work was not suffering and neither were my colleagues as a result of my illness. I am still ill, but in a new job and all is well. But, if Annie's illness is depression-related, she may well be having issues of motivation. Sometimes I find it very difficult to sit down and get an entry on my blog completed - and I have been trying to write my next book (which already has publisher interest) for simply ages. Many people don't understand that depression is such a debilitating illness that it's NOT a case of "I can't be bothered" but a genuine inability to get on.

However, Naomi is running a magazine NOT a charity. She should sit down with Annie and get things straightened out. As Annie is a writer, she will know about deadlines. It sounds as though Annie is not physically able to work at present, so perhaps she would be better without the job, claiming disability benefit, and seeking help to get herself better and her life back on track. In the meantime, Naomi could offer her freelance work on her magazine, without the hassles involved in a regular contract, and maybe help to introduce Annie to a literary agent so that more freelance work might come her way.

In any case, it doesn't sound as though Annie should be making work her first priority at the present time, and it IS time (I think) for Naomi to be honest (without being cruel) with Annie, and to think of the team and their magazine as a whole.

Ginger_Nut

Yes she should, in the time old saying: time is money.

It would be horrible to fire her seeing as she is so low but the buisness should come first and friendship second, I know that sound horrible but i'm guessing the magazine makes profit and seeing as there is plenty of other magainze willing to pick up where the other one left.

No choice but to fire her.

cazziem

It cannot be resolve with a yes or no answer based on the information provided. The whole picture needs to be looked at. If Naomi was aware of this ongoing deadline problem and had not discussed it with Annie already then no, if she had then yes as at the end of the day it's a business and if Naomi had been a good business woman, not to mention good friend who I would have expected to know of Annie's circumstances she would not have taken Annie on knowing the stress she was under because it's obvious Annie would not be able to give 100% to the job.