The First Ten Seconds Firing Rule
Deliver the termination news within ten seconds of the conversation starting, and never let the firing be the first time they hear the standard.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 85%
Shaan Puri's rule is that the news must leave your mouth within the first ten seconds of the conversation. Anything else said in that window means that when the news does arrive, the person is left re-reading everything you just said and is blindsided much harder. His framing to new managers is that everybody sucks as a manager at the beginning, nobody is naturally amazing at it right off the bat, and it is a learned skill, so the ten-second rule is the single thing to learn first. Sam Parr, who describes himself as bad at firing and estimates around twenty people fired across sixteen years, uses a matching opening script: this conversation is going to stink, but I am firing you today, and we can talk about why if you want. He has since stopped volunteering the reasons at all, on the grounds that explaining does not benefit him and only creates legal exposure. The deeper failure both identify sits earlier: the one time Shaan made someone cry, he realised the surprise itself was on him, because he had been too scared to say clearly and in advance that performance was not at the required level. Avoiding the easy conversation is what manufactures the hard one.
Origin
Crystallised from Shaan's realisation while firing someone that their shock, not their sadness, was the real signal, and that it traced back to a feedback conversation he had been too scared to have months earlier.
Core principles
- 01The news comes out in the first ten seconds
- 02Do not beat around the bush, it is for you not for them
- 03Surprise at a firing is the manager's failure
- 04Stretching the pain out is worse than ripping off the band-aid
- 05Everybody is bad at management at the beginning, it is learned
How to run it
- 1
Have the standards conversation first
Before it ever reaches a firing, say plainly that this is not going the way it needs to go, that it has to go differently, and what the level actually is. Shaan's regret is that he avoided this and made the later conversation far tougher.
Watch out Avoiding the tough conversation now guarantees a tougher one later.
- 2
Do not delay the decision once it is made
Treat it like anything else unpleasant: stretching the pain out is worse than ripping off the band-aid. Sam's admission that he hates the conversation so much he avoids it is the failure mode to design against.
- 3
Open with the frame, then the news, inside ten seconds
Sam's script opens by naming that the conversation is going to stink, then states that he is firing them today. Shaan's rule is that the news must be out of your mouth in the first ten seconds and that anything else in that window is a mistake.
Pro tip Say the sentence out loud beforehand so the first ten seconds are not improvised.
- 4
Decide your position on reasons before you walk in
Sam originally offered to talk about why if they wanted, and now does not say why at all, reasoning that it does not benefit him and creates the risk of being sued. Pick your policy in advance rather than in the moment.
- 5
Accept that you will be bad at this at first
Shaan's message to every new manager is that they suck, everybody sucks at the beginning, nobody is naturally an amazing manager, and it is a learned skill. Treat each firing as practice at a skill rather than evidence you are unfit.
In the wild
Shaan describes the one time he made someone cry while firing them, and realised in the moment that the tears were not primarily about being fired but about being surprised. He had never made the standard explicit beforehand.
→ He attributes the outcome to himself, concluding he was too scared to have the earlier clarity conversation and therefore had to have a much tougher one instead.
Sam, who estimates roughly twenty firings over sixteen years and calls himself a punk about it, uses a fixed opening rather than improvising: name that the conversation will stink, then say directly that he is firing them today.
→ He has since dropped the offer to explain why, on the basis that it helps him not at all and exposes him to being sued.
Common mistakes
Filling the first ten seconds with anything else
Preamble makes the manager feel better and the employee feel far worse. When the news finally lands they are left wondering what all the earlier talk was about, which is a much harsher blindside.
Never stating the standard beforehand
If the person is genuinely surprised, the manager avoided a conversation months earlier. The firing then carries the weight of all the feedback that was never given.
Avoiding the conversation entirely
Both hosts admit to dragging it out because they hate the conversation. The delay does not reduce the total pain, it stretches it and adds the cost of a poor performer staying in the role.
Is it for you?
Best for
First-time managers who dread the conversation and stretch it out
Not ideal for
Situations governed by formal legal or HR processes that dictate the script and sequence
From the transcript
“the key to firing though if you learn nothing else about firing uh is in the first 10 seconds, you need to say the news.…”
“all right, this conversation's going to stink, but I'm firing you today and we can talk about why if you want.”
“Now I don't even say why. I'm just like this isn't working out because it doesn't benefit me to say why.”
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