Editor’s Note: Billy Ray Thompson, FACHE, recently retired President of the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System in 
Tyler, died this week, John is in Tyler to pay respects to his talented colleague whom he met 41 years ago on Ray’s first day at Hermann Hospital in Houston. God bless his wonderful wife Marilyn and his two sons.
Ray, you did it right.
TYLER, Texas — Ben was devastated. He had never been fired before — not in 15 years. His record of performance was exemplary.
His employer didn’t call it a “sack.” They told him if he resigned they would provide a 
generous severance. In their “severance” conversation, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources told Ben that when they hired him they thought he was the right person but, clearly, they had made a mistake, that he was unsuited for their successful environment.
In Ben’s defense, he was on course to meet what he thought was the organization’s performance objectives. No one told him he was on the wrong track.
“…he was not right for our organization.”
That statement dumps the blame on the candidate. Another way to look at the situation is that the organization was not right for Ben. In a change organization, Ben was delivering on the issues he was told about during the interview but then there was the meeting with HR and he was out…Perhaps the commitment to change was at issue.
That there was a failure in the recruitment process is not in question but the blame should not belong solely to Ben. Even though he did not ask any questions about the organization’s culture during the interview process, whoever coordinated the recruitment, either a search firm or internal recruiter, failed to be transparent.
Before I share the rest of the story, to quote the late Paul Harvey, I invite you to weigh in on your thoughts.
What do you think?
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