WIBTA for firing an employee whose wife is very very sick when our work covers his health insurance?
**I am NOT OP. Original post by u/ExistingClaim6030 in r/AmITheAsshole**
mood spoilers: >!sad but peacefully resolved!<
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[**WIBTA for firing an employee whose wife is very very sick when our work covers his health insurance?**](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/wdgr8s/wibta_for_firing_an_employee_whose_wife_is_very/) - 11 Days ago
Recently, I learned that our company is doing layoffs, and I'll have to let one person among my 4 subordinates go. It came down to choosing one of the 3 least-experienced ones who were all hired about 2 years ago. A month ago, I would've said they are all roughly in the same ballpark of competence. I say a month ago, because:
A few weeks ago, one of the 3, I'll call him "A", began dealing with hardship. A's wife was hospitalized and is now very very sick; I remember A once said the doctors couldn't reassure him she'd make it through. As A tells us, he's now caring for their two inconsolable children alone and constantly having to go visit his wife.
Now obviously, none of that is any of my or our company's business; what is, is how A's work performance and productivity has plummeted. Since returning from his initial leave of a few days, he's constantly showing up late, leaving early, and is a lot less productive and focused during the day when he is here, and is often on phone calls. We've (politely) tried to tell him we needed him to focus, as this is causing a significant and notable reduction in our team's efficiency, but he always just apologetically says yes only to not really change and of course it's hard to insist further.
Of course I'm 99% sure he needs the job because our company has really good healthcare coverage so I'm sure if we lay him off that's going to affect him for the worse. (I'm guessing, I'm not familiar with the specifics of how it all works or if A has other insurance, but the fact that he didn't leave the job for longer suggests to me he doesn't.)
I tried to explain to HR and my superiors about this, and how it would be very bad for team morale for me to lay him off (the others all know, A's been pretty open about this to us), and asked for more time or something. They told me the downsizing decision was set in stone well above them, and there was nothing they could do. One of them suggested FMLA, but our local office of the company only has about 40 employees (and we're in a small town that's way more than 75 miles away from any of our other locations) so I think that means he'd be ineligible.
Initially my attitude was that this is a job and I needed to keep emotions out of it. "Don't blame me, blame capitalism and the American healthcare system". But I heard some differing opinions from friends/family (that's why I'm posting here because they made me reconsider). The one that made me question my stance the most was when one basically asked (paraphrasing): "hey, you have a lot of experience and are fairly well-off, and wouldn't have trouble finding other work in this market [that's all true]. So if you just comply, do you really have a right to pin all the blame on the system, instead of taking personal responsibility?" I kinda wasn't 100% sure what to say.
So Reddit, WIBTA for laying A off? Should I lay off one of the other two employees (still performing competently) instead?
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[**Update 1**](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/wdgr8s/wibta_for_firing_an_employee_whose_wife_is_very/iiky1bq/) - in comments of original post
EDIT/UPDATE: Hey everyone, thanks for all the responses I wasn't expecting this to blow up. Don't have time to go through and reply to nearly everything so I'll just provide some info here.
I have to make this choice by Friday morning so that HR can be ready to deliver the news at the start of next week. I really have no flexibility here: our higher-ups told us that the downsizing decision was completely out of their hands and by the company's brass. They had to decide how many people and from which departments to lay-off in our locations across the country; that included a handful of people in our office, and specifically one person in my team. They told me this decision was final with no alternatives and there was nothing they could do or I could do, without risking our own jobs for insubordination, anyway.
Speaking of that, I'm not ready to go down the "refuse in protest" route because I have no guarantee they won't just lay off A anyway. So to me that's a pointless sacrifice.
From talking to HR, unfortunately A wouldn't be eligible for FMLA for the reasons I said (this 75-mile radius doesn't have at least 50 employees). Fortunately, he would be eligible for COBRA, but (once the grace period ends) he'd have to pay the premiums which they estimated come out to about $500 a month. The severance package would also be (since only 2 years) 4 weeks of pay. So it's better than nothing; but still, between a short-term severance, a nonnegligible premiums cost, and the fact that his wife's condition doesn't seem like it will be reversed anytime soon, it's still going to jeopardize his life.
Regarding the choice of who to fire: A and the other 2 subordinates at his seniority level all had the same start date, and were hired in the same round of hiring. So "last in first out" doesn't really help here. (If you're wondering, the 4th subordinate is the most senior and our de facto "second-in-command" so he's definitely off the table.) Unfortunately, per company policy: I'm not permitted to tell any of my subordinates of this upcoming layoff, regardless of whether or not I plan to select them. It's standard procedure in the corporate world, as that can make things very messy (especially since we work with sensitive data; the procedure is let it all be known at once rather than let anxiety and rumors fly about). So asking the others if they'd volunteer in advance isn't an option. (I'm also doubtful they'd agree because in this small town, this specific industry is rather competitive.)
I'm torn. My current intention is review some metrics from before a month ago to see who would've gotten the boot if the guy's wife wasn't sick. But I can't argue with what some of you said of how morale, and my reputation among my subordinates, would be irreparably damaged if I got rid of this guy; I can't predict how the others would take it. On the other hand, our team is already going to be struggling doing a 5-person job with a 4-person team, and that problem will only worsen if one of those 4 is an underperformer. For reference, today, he was even less productive than he's usually been these past weeks, but we've all continued to be patient and understanding.
So there really is no right answer here. I definitely will offer glowing recommendations and job-hunting advice to whoever I do let go, though.
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[**Final Update**](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/wmicsw/update_wibta_for_firing_an_employee_whose_wife_is/) - 3Hrs ago
Update to my previous post about WIBTA if I laid off "A", whose performance plummeted due to his wife being very sick.
For clarity here: "B" & "C" are the other two subordinates who were layoff candidates. A, B and C all had the same start date, and prior to A's wife's sickness, I would say they were all in the same ballpark of competence. "D" = my lead subordinate and our team's de facto second-in-command, who was always off the table for the pick due to his seniority and role importance.
Me, D, HR, and our office's head discussed the situation and potential ramifications extensively. We eventually agreed that we'd defer the decision to a review of pre-July metrics to see which employee would've been canned if this happened before A's wife got sick; HR said that'd be important for legal reasons no matter who was picked. (I'll clarify that me and D did this review ourselves with full transparency into the evaluation process; so it's impossible that someone outside our team fudged the review to target A.) Tragically, indeed, A had the lowest score. Although it was not by much at all, A's assessment of pre-July metrics and role importance came out the lowest.
We agreed that I could offer B & C the opportunity to take the layoff and severance package instead. We met with them privately and explained this situation with the layoffs and A; they were understandably shocked, but they both declined. One of them mentioned they themselves have a family to support. (And as I alluded to in the previous post, this small town is unfortunately not much of a candidate market, especially in this specific industry.)
Thankfully, and I misunderstood this initially (me and HR had a miscommunication): all of the employees being laid off will have an extension of employer-paid health insurance in their severance packages. So A won't even have to be paying any COBRA fees for a few months at least.
Come Tuesday morning, we laid off the chosen people in our office including A. It was mentally exhausting, a lot of tears and shocked faces, but we explained the severance package and health coverage. I personally mentioned to A I was open to being a reference if he needed one. A actually reached out to me, B, C & D via email that night and thanked us for being a great team; though he had some choice words about our company, unsurprisingly. The 4 of us have been adjusting to our new workflow, and other than A not being here I don't feel much has changed in our relationships (of course, I understand and I'm sure HR understands that B & C might be updating their resumes now.)
So that's all, at least for now. There was never going to be a good ending here, but at least A's health insurance is being extended. So he can use that time to adjust, and he can use the free time in his day to commit to helping his family (he was very clearly struggling with balancing that with work).
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**Reminder - I am not the original poster.**