Member-only story

Make your life easier by making it easier

When to Break Up with a Friend or Employee

If you’re trying to decide whether to fire someone or cut them out of your life, you’ve already waited too long

Sanjay Singhal
7 min readDec 15, 2023

--

Man with his arms over his head, trying to make a difficult decision
Just do it. Get them out of your life — Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Unsplash

My executive assistant, Holly, came running into my office and blurted, “Sanjay, there’s a crazy woman in the lobby, screaming she’s going to sue us!”

Moments later Holly and I were in the lobby and approaching a woman yelling at the receptionist, demanding to be let in to the building. I interrupted, asking the woman, “What’s going on? How can I help?”

She responded, “Who the fuck are you?” and before I could answer, shrieked, “My husband is having an affair with some whore in your company and I’m going to sue you!”

I was then told through a cascade of swearing and tears that our head of IT, her husband, had been having an affair with another employee at the office, and we had facilitated the affair by providing a venue for them to meet and ‘carry on’, making us liable for some unspecified legal damages.

We eventually tracked down the wayward husband and sent him and his wife home, but here’s the thing. That IT manager had been a thorn in our sides for months. He was unreliable and a negative…

--

--

Sanjay Singhal
Sanjay Singhal

Written by Sanjay Singhal

I write about how to manage your career and life by telling stories about how I've botched my own career and life.

Responses (9)