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I have hired thousands of employees for the 30+ retail and hospitality outlets that I have started and managed over a 35 year time period. During that time I have had to fire many hundreds of employees and I eventually developed a system that worked. This is a rather long answer only because we are dealing with humans here and humans are complicated and require intricate and delicate treatment.Now the goal in firing a person is to have them leave your business without disturbance and to not have them come back into your life or the operations of your business ever again. See, if you are not careful, the fired employee could cause a 'real stink' with your customers and staff and could be back sooner than you think with complaints to authorities (think unions, tax, and health departments) or even with an angry relative or at worst a brick through your window late one night. Trust me, I've had them all.So you are correct in realizing that you need to fire them in a diplomatic way i.e. diplomacy = the skill of dealing with others without causing bad feelings even if it means a measure of concealing your real feelings and intentions.Now for a small business, the firing policy and procedure must be built into the hiring policy because you have no way of knowing, on the basis of an interview or two, which person will be a good fit for your operations and team and which one won't.The hiring policy must target attitude competencies not just skills because while skills can be learned quickly, a change of attitude can take years to effect and could cost far more in management time than a small business person can afford to invest, not to mention the collateral damage they can cause during the change of attitude period. So while big business can afford to counsel and performance manage this employee, small business just doesn't have the resources to even entertain the idea. It is best then to look to employ people with good employability attitudes like (1) a willingness to learn (2) a proactive keenness to help others and (3) social awareness that ensures a good fit with your team.Knowing that you won't always get it right, you should tell new employees that you are not giving them a job, simply an opportunity to get a job should they be accepted as a wanted member of the team. Two weeks is the right amount of time to have someone demonstrate their real attitudes yet not so long as to acquire some valuable skills that may override your judgement about firing them. So after about 2 weeks I would ask the team members if they felt the new employee was a valuable addition to the team, if not, my diplomatic firing process would kick in and it goes like this:Pick a day to fire them as soon after the 2 week probation period as possibleMake up their pay for all the time they have worked. Make sure it covers all their entitlements.Bundle up an extra 1-2 weeks pay depending your assessment about their negative reaction to being fired and put it in your pocket.Wait for them to finish their shift and walk/talk to them as you both walk out of the business and down the road a little. Ask them about how they are finding the work as you walk.Once out of ear shot of customers and staff, stop and explain that after reviewing their work that you feel either "that you have come to realize that they are over qualified for the job and for you to keep them would be a disservice to them and their career" or "things are not going as well as you had hoped and that us owners are going to have to do much more of the work to save costs which means we just can't afford to keep you".Hand them the pay amount you owe them and then stroke their ego by telling them they are highly skilled and that it's not about their skill or work (diplomacy) and that you believe that they will find a job more in keeping with their talents very soon - "but just in case it takes a week or two to find such a job, here is an extra one/two weeks pay to tide you over". Then hand them the extra money in folding cash.Offer to be a verbal referee for any future employment application and write the phone number of the business on a card or offer a business card to them to demonstrate your seriousness. Of course you don't explain the type of reference you would give, simply that you would be happy to give one. Their assumption of a positive one may be misguided.Shake hands and part with them thanking you rather than being upset at that moment of dismissal. They will also be grateful to be saved from the awkward embarrassment of having this incident take place in front of customers and staff. No doubt the upset bit comes latter but following this process I have never had a bad reaction like I did when I would tell sacked employees what I really thought of them as I fired them in my shop in front of customers and staff. Just remember this age old (but successful) break-up philosophy ...OK, the extra payout hurts your bottom line today but not as much as it would cost you over time to keep them or the costs of dealing with the fallout issues mentioned above when this process is handled undiplomatically ... and for the high moral folk, it's not lying when you only talk about the positives of a person while totally ignoring their negatives and your reasons about not being able to afford them is pretty close to the truth for every small business anyway.

Thanks for requestI cannot say China has found some magic formula, but I can provide some insight.Yes, China installs the largest number of industrial robots per year, by far. However it also has the largest population, therefore the robot-to-worker percentage is low.Here is an example of how robots are being used in some industries in ChinaHowever, focusing on robots excludes the wide application of other technology including AI that exists in China, which has had a more profound impact on jobs than industrial robots at this point in time.Let me use the ticketing system for trains as an example.A few years ago, If you wanted to buy a train ticket in the past you had to go to the train station to buy a ticket or go to one of the local ticket offices in the city. There are 3 train stations which together had 60 ticket wickets for people to buy or switch tickets.Today there are only 12 ticket wickets in operation. All the others are closed and so are the jobs.TodayYou buy on your tickets on your smartphoneYou do not get a physical ticketYou go to the train station and show your ID in a scanner to enter the train stationYou scan your ID on another scanner, to enter the train platform at the appropriate time.Today 96 fewer ticket vending jobs (two shift jobs) in one, plus no paper, plus fewer people to get you through the station and onto the train. Maybe all told 130–140 station jobs lost (not counting the closed ticket offices in the city) and the customer experience is improved.Lost jobs were replaced by new jobs by expanding food and beverage outlets at the station.The train ticket buying example has been repeated in some fashion, a hundred times over in China. Also e-Commerce is huge in China which challenges the old brick and mortar retail platform.Lastly, China is home to hundreds of millions of self-employed entrepreneurs, mostly out of necessity. There is no huge safety net in China for able-bodied adults. No unemployment benefits. You want money, you find a job or you make your own.IMO one huge difference between China and the US is the social/cultural ideology. There are many more things that could be automated, but chooses not to in order to maintain jobs for people.Provincial and municipal governments have a mandate to create jobs and grow the economy at the same time. Key is finding the right balance and each situation in each province is different. The good part is the government will help people create their own jobs.Pity the provincial governor who does not achieve both objectives, for their future in government (and maybe those below them) depends on it. Can’t get the job done …… there are 100 behind them that can.

I moved to the UK in 2010, almost by accident. Now I am from Finland, born & bred in Helsinki, and lived and worked in the US and other countries so it wasn’t as if I was straight from the forest just come to civilization. I’d been to UK before, but not *lived* there, if you know what I mean, it’s always different with being a tourist. I knew the language (albeit the American version), had had an Irish gf and hanged with the UK/Irish/Australian expat crowd so I kind of knew tea, rugby and cricket, but a few things really thumped me.Now some of these are positive, some negative, some just different. Some things were surprising, then one just adapts, some things still irk me. In a random order without prejudice:The gas-bill-proof-of-address… like being used to a central government registry system, and once you get yourself into one “electoral roll”, thats it. In UK you need a gas bill, or some other utility, and no, I just moved here and rent a room and… AAAARRGGHH!Damp houses “built funny” with no insulation, and uncentralized central heating in housing blocks. “Built funny” as in without any roof overhang, water goes straight onto the brick wall, and into it. Also the bricks start directly from the ground, and theres no foundation, and the door is in the middle of the wall without a step. And these are new houses, not the ones with carpetted bathrooms. And then people wonder why the houses are damp if the brick is soaked through. And don’t start me on “saving” money switching the heating off and letting the house cool down and then heating it back up… I have lived in an uninsulated log house in -35 C so I know how entropy works.Power showers - they are clever but scary, the older ones in the houses with carpetted bathrooms especially. I wish I had had one in that log house though.Council tax bill coming separately - and screwing your budget. Yes we pay council taxes in Finland too, but it is based on your income and taken by your employer in the PAYE. At least you have a proof of address now… showing a threat of a criminal record and thousand pound fines for the bank is a bit iffy though.PAYE and taxes. After Finland and the USA, the HMRC is just… magical wonderment. They just adjust things and thats it. No sweating over forms. Must be a trap…No zebra crossings. Yes there are crossings, or there is this knobbled tiles and no step and it looks like a pedestrian crossing, but the cars do not stop for you! Like you need to have eyes in the back of your head! With the stress of having to watch out for the traffic coming from the “wrong” direction, this really pissed me off before realising that I was basically stepping on the road in front of cars, when I thought I was stepping on a pedestrian crossing like at home. I still need to remind myself.If you can’t win them, join them… Having the shift stick on the left. Just no. Just can’t function on the wrong side, would need an automatic… even I was a petrolhead most of my life I’m now a cranky old git dependent on public transport.Car insurance, or rather driver insurance. I was used to if my car was insured, I could just give the keys to someone and as long as they had a licence and were sober that was it. But in UK you can’t just borrow a car. And then the prices… OK, ok, old git takes public transport.OK, no car. Train. Train ticket pricing. Screwing your budget? AAAARRGGHH! Never mind reading a Sherlock Holmes story and trying to imagine it set in the present time - the alibi would never be based on train schedules…Finding the bus. Yes, cheap. Public transport out of cities? Bus once an hour and last one at… 5pm ? AAAARRGGHH!But once you find the bus, and it is a double decker bus going on country lanes, and you go sitting on the top floor right front. Like being a kid on a rollercoaster.Taking a taxi, eating out, taking your clothes to dry cleaners, getting a haircut and a wet shave… things you thought were luxuries reserved for the filthy rich or reserved for when you flash out after payday… you can actually afford them on your salary. Order food online and get it delivered instead of paying the bus and dragging heavy bags comes out cheaper… why didn’t I move to UK years ago? AAAARRGGHH!Food. Cheap food. Varieties of food. Takeout. Pubs. Beer. Cheap beer. Sunday roast. Meal deals. Curry… what you thought a treat on payday once a month you can afford to do daily… and you do it and your clothes don’t fit any more. AAAARRGGHH! Now I am glad I don’t have a car as I actually have to walk and get exercise after extrasizing.Once you get settled and figure out how to get back and from work and more or less manage to stay alive without electrocuting yourself in the shower you start noticing the finer things starting right when you are walking to work in the morning.…Green, everything is green. Lawns everywhere. And they cut the grass in the winter. But lawns. And huge lawns.There is an actual milkman doing deliveries.Cats, free-roaming cats, everywhere. Cats. Meow.Parents with kids in… school uniforms - coming from a country where you don’t have them, just makes you realise you’re no longer in Kansas…Not only the schoolkids being bare-kneed in the winter. People in shorts and shirtsleeves or a skimpy dress when I’m wearing woollens and freezing my nads off. “But you come from a cold country” - no but yeah but no but yeah. Still no. I wrap up. In the summer inside the house.Going to the GP complaining about your frozen… erm… result of which is a chest infection. Medicines costing one fixed prescription charge. And finding generic stuff cheap in the supermarket.People greeting you regionally in ways you never associated with UK. “Are you allright, mate?” “Yeah, allright”… mate?Thinking you know English and then trying to cope with expressions. Say a coin, slipping your hand on the street or on the lawn, will “drop on the floor” and if it is a £2 coin, it is “two pound” as the money has no plural ‘s’ apparently.Class society and basing the pecking order upon your accent…. yours truly, the apparently random South African.Class society based also on where you went to school and how you dress.Official racism in all kinds of official applications and census forms.Racism based on… well, can’t really be racism as you are the same color can it but…. in the pub… “those travellers” - I can’t tell the difference from the person talking… “bloody foreigners/immigrants” - erm, I’m one… “but you speak English I meant those Poles” - erm, I thought you said your grandfather flew in the RAF Polish contingent and isn’t your name Pilsudski…Someone showing up in a suit to the pub, the question is “how did it go in court?” … I guess back in the day it would have been a ticket to Australia… mate.Everyone rolling cigarettes, and into these tiny filters making a really thin rat-tail. At first I thought everyone was doing spliffs, as the only people I’d used to seeing rolling cigarettes were druggies, winos or really skint old gits… After seeing the prices of a pack of fags I am really glad I don’t smoke.Police officers being really supportive, and as long as you can recite your address and postcode, you get told to carry on home, instead of spending the night in the drunk tank let alone being held at gunpoint and arrested for not carrying your ID.Morris dancers… well, umm… interesting.Lewes Bonfire Night, OK you can now watch Morris dancers with a stiff upper lip.