Encore: Chapter 1

Once, at a retreat for askanim, Avi Korman had attended a session on how to fire people. It wasn’t called that, of course — it had a title like Cultivating Greatness in Your School Personnel — but the presenter had ended up fielding a volley of questions about letting go of rebbeim and teachers.

The conference organizers had quickly turned off the video cameras and gotten the hotel staff to start noisily removing chafing dishes from the side tables; the topic was just too uncomfortable and no one needed it at the end of a long day.

But in those first few minutes before the session had been shut down, Avi Korman, then in his first year as a board member at the high school his son attended, learned a few things. First, that it was best not to draw it out and make excuses, but to come out and say it quickly. Also, it was important to do it face-to-face, not by phone or e-mail, and to try to end the conversation on a high note.

Over the past few years, there had been opportunities for Avi to use his knowledge, and he’d discovered that experience didn’t make it easier. Firing staff always took longer than it should, and rarely ended pleasantly.