My advice?

[Cavallier]

My boss, the CEO of the company I work for, pulled me aside and said, "I admire and respect your opinon. You are an intelligent and thoughtful person...". He then asked me for advice and insight on firing a fellow employee.

Why do they always come to me for sage-like advice?

 

[Solitaire U.]

Because you're a sucker?

 

[Cavallier]

^Could be.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Advise having him fired by singing strip-o-gram.

Start giving bad advice and they'll stop asking you.

Trust me; it works

 

[SpaceYeti]

^ Yes.

 

[Jennywocky]

Advise having him fired by singing strip-o-gram.

Start giving bad advice and they'll stop asking you.

Trust me; it works

yeah, they'll just go to a coworker and say, "I need help figuring out how to fire Cavallier -- any ideas?"

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

My boss, the CEO of the company I work for, pulled me aside and said, "I admire and respect your opinon. You are an intelligent and thoughtful person...". He then asked me for advice and insight on firing a fellow employee.

Why do they always come to me for sage-like advice?

State that it is out of your field of expertise.

 

[just george]

My boss, the CEO of the company I work for, pulled me aside and said, "I admire and respect your opinon. You are an intelligent and thoughtful person...". He then asked me for advice and insight on firing a fellow employee.

Why do they always come to me for sage-like advice?

It's a tad obvious, don't you think? They've identified you as being an intelligent, thoughtful fellow whose opinion they admire and respect, which makes you the go to guy for situations that they're unsure about.

If I were you I would ask whether they're coming to you to actually solve the problem, or whether they're coming to you for reassurance about a decision they've already made, perhaps for a few tips on how to execute it properly or to identify land mines that they might have missed.

I personally think that if your CEO has come to you and spoken to you with that kind of language, that playing dumb from here on out isn't going to work, because it's incongruent with the rest of their perception of you.

I think that the main risk for you is that others may take your advice merely because you said it, and if things go wrong, blame you for making a bad choice - so imo it's important that you communicate that the decision is theirs, but that you will analyse the situation wholistically and outline the pros/cons of different strategies.

When this happens to me (and it does often because Im also the go to guy for a lot of people) I usually start the chat with the line "Im going to say what I think and why I think it, but at the end of the day, it really is up to you and I don't have all of the information" - then I go through the different options, the costs/benefits of each, the risks involved, and then I always ask "what do you think about all of that? does it make sense to you or am I on crazy pills?".

Does that make sense?

(see. hehe)

 

[BigApplePi]

My boss, the CEO of the company I work for, pulled me aside and said, "I admire and respect your opinon. You are an intelligent and thoughtful person...". He then asked me for advice and insight on firing a fellow employee.

Why do they always come to me for sage-like advice?

I worked for a period as a supervisor. I had to hire and fire short-term people. Most seemed to understand it was the end of their job. One lady pleaded with me that she needed her job. I talked to my boss how to justify it. It was out of my hands but I did my best to tell her we could no longer keep her. She left sad, but did not blame me. That was the most painful experience of my job.

Cav. Can you talk at all about the experience? Why did the boss want this person fired?

 

[~~~]

You did remember to advise him to pay you more as a part of the sage advice right?

 

[redbaron]

Just be glad your boss thinks highly of you and just continue doing whatever it is that you're doing. I would ask him what the person has done, and if I didn't know the full details of the situation I'd have said that I'm not in a position to make judgement.

As long as the attention he gives doesn't start to infringe on your comfort zone or impede your goals, praise is not a problem. If it does either of those though, I think it's best to take a firm stance. They might be a little hurt, but it's important to set that boundary (though I think you probably know this already).

About two years ago, my boss patted me on the back after a performance review and told me, 'I like the way you call a spade a spade and you know how to solve problems, I look forward to working side by side with you to work towards these goals (as set out in the review).'

Already slightly chagrined by the review itself, I told him in these exact words: 'First of all, please don't touch me. I'd also like to continue to work alone. If you write a list or e-mail me your ideas and observations, I will readily take them on board, however I work much more effectively alone.'

He was a little hurt and we debated a little bit as to the best approach, but I was relatively firm in my stance that I will be most productive and get the best results possible by working without others. I am glad I had that chat because the results of my boss allowing me almost complete freedom in my work has done wonders, both for me and the business.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

This comes across as a test. They wanted to see how you'd react.

If I were you I would ask whether they're coming to you to actually solve the problem, or whether they're coming to you for reassurance about a decision they've already made, perhaps for a few tips on how to execute it properly or to identify land mines that they might have missed.

^This, but I'd also overtly ask whether I was being tested, which encourages them to reveal their motivations and may foster opportunity, having demonstrated your ability to recognize a test as a test.

 

[Cavallier]

This comes across as a test. They wanted to see how you'd react.

Eh, I think everything in life is a test. More specifically though, I don't think this was intended to be a test.

Mostly my boss had determined that he was going to give the person in question one last chance. He wanted my advice on how to break it to the rest of the team if he did actually decide to fire the employee. The place I work at is fairly small, 30 people, divided up into close knit teams ranging in size from 6 to 12 people. The person in trouble has been with the company for 10 years and my boss fears people will take sides. He also wanted to know if he moved the person to a different team how the dynamics of that team might change. Personally I think the person will see it as a demotion as will most of the rest of the company. I don't think it is the sort of "last chance" the person will act upon in a positive way.

My boss seemed to really value my willingness to consider the problem, weigh the pros/cons, and not simply tell him what I thought he might want to hear.

And yes, I should have requested a consultation fee.

 

[joal0503]

i use to bang my boss, too.

 

[Cavallier]

^Ha!

@Jennywocky : If they choose to fire me via the use of a stripper...Best firing ever! In more ways than one.