Making these types of calls is, hands down, the toughest thing I've ever had to do. (Particularly those 40 lay-offs three weeks before Christmas last year.) But I think too many managers (and companies) forget:

"You lose good staff by keeping mediocre ones."

Well put.

I can definitely relate to this post right now :P

the person is at least doing something and contributing something even if it's not as much as what everyone else is doing

The lab where I work has this same philosophy. Basically, they just find a warm body to fill the position and then worry about the problems later...if they do at all. As long as they do something, they are still a good part of the department.

I still have that momentary sick feeling. Mostly because the workload won't change and we're now down a person.

Been there too. They just dismissed one of my fellow third shifters because he always missed work with some excuse or other. He freely admitted that he never wanted the whole position that we had (he has a full time job elsewhere); he just wanted the two weekend nights. He was let go by certified letter because he would not return calls from the boss! Unfortunately, it took months of having to pay people callback pay and bonuses to cover his hours before they could finally get rid of him. He would show up once in a while, but we never knew when. I feel bad that he lost his job, but then I also feel good that he lost his job because it shows that the supervisors are actually following the attendance policy they throw at some of us.

I respect and admire the people who have to face it and do it.
I do not want their job. I like being one of the lowly workers rather than in management. I have enough stress now and could not imagine taking on more.

I agree. He is a very laid back person, which does not work on our shift in our lab. The rest of us are type A personalities...which is a requirement when one has to juggle so many things at the same time. He just did not seem to care after a while. Perhaps it was the fact that another lab in his chainn of hospitals was paying double critical pay (about $60 per hour) to get people to come and fill in there when needed. They had lots of holes to fill and he could make tons of money. Why work for us for $20 an hour when he can make so much more? I see his point, but he should have been grown up enough to resign his position instead of playing games for months. WE could ahve hired someone else and had them fully trained by now if it weren't for his games. Now there is a hiring freeze at our system and we might not get to replace him for a while.