Is It Ever OK To Fire Someone Over The Phone?

Owning your own business is hard work, and it comes part and parcel with a lot of jobs that no one else wants – like firing employees that aren’t working out.

This woman owns a coffee shop and hired a young employee who ended up also dating her older brother.

Things got awkward after the two began dating and the employee started acting as if she was better than the others and somehow owned part of the shop, too.

Anytime OP addressed the issues with her employee it resulted in a call from her brother asking her to stop “pestering” his girlfriend.

I (35F) am the owner of a coffee shop. Linda (23F) is one of my employees who joined six months ago. Four months ago, she met my older brother (37M) and they started dating.

Ever since they started dating, Linda has been acting like she owns the place. She never comes on time, and treats my other employees rudely.

Every time I scold Linda, I end up receiving a call from my brother telling me not to pester his girlfriend.

OP got fed up eventually and called her employee at home to let her go – after she failed to show up for a shift because she didn’t “feel like it.”

Her brother was livid and yelling, resulting in OP’s husband throwing him out of the house.

Recently, I’ve had enough. She’s been shirking her responsibilities lately. Even after the holiday period ended, she chose not to show up. I called her up today, and she told me that she didn’t feel like coming in.

I told her that I’ve had enough, and that I was finally going to fire her. I told her we only needed diligent employees here, and that she was clearly not one of them.

Hours later, my brother stormed into my house, cursing and yelling at me for firing his girlfriend. My husband kicked him out of the house, and I was honestly so annoyed.

Her parents think it was wrong of her to fire her brother’s girlfriend no matter her performance.

Since the incident, the two have broken up and the brother blames the split on the girlfriend being fired.

My parents think I’m the AH for firing my brother’s girlfriend and for kicking my brother out of our house. AITA?

I received a call from my brother, who is very pissed as Linda has dumped him. He says that had I not fired Linda, he wouldn’t have gotten dumped. To a certain degree, that may be true.

However, if I hadn’t fired Linda, that would have only been disadvantageous for my coffee shop business. I think this makes things very clear now.

Was this lady wrong for putting her business first? Should she have done it in person? Does family come first?

Reddit is weighing in below!

The employee obviously deserved being fired, and while doing it in person is always the first choice, sometimes it could be in the business’s best interest to not do that.