This editorial was originally published no Mar 27, 2014. It is being republished as Steve is on holiday. See if it's still relevant and what your views are in 2025.

Have you ever been fired from a job? I hope most of you never have as it's a somewhat traumatizing experience. I've been let go from one (and asked to leave another), and even though I didn't like the job and wasn't sorry to be gone, I didn't like getting fired.

Awhile back I saw Brent Ozar ask the question on Twitter: "when do you fire a DBA?". There were a number of answers, and he ended up writing a post that summarized some of the reasons as responses. You can read the post, and the various reasons. I think for most of them, I'd disagree if any incident were the first occurrence of the situation. I know people will make mistakes, and if I don't forgive accidents, I'll never have anyone trust me as a manager.

I also don't think you let someone go for ignorance. They might never have had to deal with a situation. I don't think you let them go if they don't dig deep into systems and find problems. It's always possible they haven't gotten to the one item that causes a disaster.

To me there are two certain places where I'd let someone go. The first is willfully taking part in any illegal activity. I don't think an officer of an organization can allow that to take place. The second is more subjective. I would have to let you go when you've repeatedly shown that you're not becoming a better employee and making the same mistakes over and over again.

Failure to learn is not an option.