A LinkedIn post by Noida-based entrepreneur Nitin Verma has started discussion online after he shared why he fired a senior employee for asking him what to do next at work.
In the post, the founder of InstaAstro said he had hired the employee so that he would not have to manage that function himself anymore.
“I fired someone because He asked me, ‘Sir tell me what to do next,'” Verma wrote on LinkedIn.
Calling the person a “senior hire,” he said the employee had been given “full freedom” from the very beginning.
“No micromanagement. No daily check-ins. No approvals needed,” Verma added.
But things changed when the employee came to him asking for instructions. Verma said he responded by asking the employee what he thought should be done next.
“He said, ‘Sir you know better.' I asked, why did I hire you then? Silence,” the CEO wrote.
Verma used the incident to talk about what he believes leadership and seniority mean in the workplace. According to him, “You cannot give it to someone. Either they walk in with it. Or they never find it.”
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The entrepreneur also said that giving freedom to employees only works when they are ready to take responsibility for decisions on their own.
“Freedom without ownership is just confusion. And I cannot build a company on people who need to be told what to think,” he added.
Ending the post with a message for experienced professionals, Verma said senior employees should not wait to be told what to do every day.
“If you're a senior professional reading this, Your job is to walk in every morning and ask yourself, What needs to be done? That's what seniority actually means,” he wrote.
The post caught significant attention online with one user commenting, “My first boss told me to never bring him a problem without bringing three solutions first. That advice changed my entire career.”
Another said, “Understanding the core business objectives helps professionals ask smarter, more strategic questions instead of waiting for instructions or asking meaningless ones. Unfortunately, this is where many people fall short.”
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“The expectation gap between founders and corporate hires is usually where these relationships break down completely,” someone else wrote.
“Not sure if firing him was the right thing to do. Sometimes, people need to be shown a mirror because they might not share your vision. Also, not sure what the context is for which he asked you that question. If it was before taking a call on something strategically out of his expertise, I don't see anything wrong in him asking you,” read another comment.
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