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5 Signs you need to fire your designer

angry boss to designer cartoon
Are your designers turning you into a monster?

Troublesome employees suck the fun out of building a business. They do their thing instead of the company SOPs or your instructions so you end up fixing problems you didn’t cause. Plus, your targets are missed because of client complaints.

You’ve talked to them countless times, and yet your concerns fall on deaf ears. Nothing is changing for the better and this person is still stressing you out. Don’t you wish you could turn back time and un-hire them?

It’s not your fault. Applicants tend to oversell themselves during an interview and it’s difficult to gauge a person’s future performance based on a single interview or exam. The good thing is, you can turn it around – you can let them go.

Troublesome designers usually fall into one of these categories:

  1. The rookie who keeps repeating mistakes even after many days of training
  2. The old-timer whose output has become stale over the months

Because of them, your website and social media presence may have gone boring and mediocre. Or worse, if they’re doing designs for your clients, expect stress from a stream of complaints.

If you feel that your designer is no longer adding value to your organization, it’s time to find a replacement.

Designer red flags

Here is a list to help you decide if it’s time to terminate your designer.

angry boss to slow designer cartoon
A state-of-the-art software can’t make a slow designer work faster.

🚩 Does the design process seem too slow?

Delays on submission could mean delayed income.

Your designer may be using the wrong tools to complete tasks fast. But unless they complain about it, you wouldn’t know, right? And if you do, are you willing to shell out money for new tools to make them deliver faster?

Get a graphic designer who already owns and uses the right tools to deliver designs as fast as humanly possible.

🚩 Is your designer delivering similar designs over and over again?

If you’ve been working with the same designer for a long time, they may have reused old designs to save time and effort, which is completely fine at some point.

But overdoing it will result in your clients having similar-looking, template-like websites and campaigns.

Designers who stop adding value to their work fall out of sync with your company’s brand. A new graphic designer or a design team can help churn fresh designs.

angry boss cartoon design sample

🚩 Do you keep rejecting your designer’s output?

It’s frustrating to request the same revisions repeatedly. Either the designer doesn’t understand your instructions or they are purposely ignoring it. Either way, it affects your productivity.

Any designer who doesn’t get you or your brand, after you’ve given detailed instructions and inspiration, must be replaced.

🚩  Is your designer giving you homemade designs?

While we all appreciate our mom’s homemade chicken pot pie, we can’t say the same with homemade designs. Homemade designs, usually made by amateur designers, look unprofessional and cheap.

When you notice that you’re forced to approve mediocre deliverables from a rookie, it’s time to change designers. Yes, you can train the poor fellow but do you really have the time to do so?

🚩  Is your designer not delivering at all?

If your designer has stopped wow-ing you and your clients, have a talk to know the deeper problem. If you can’t do anything about it or the designer doesn’t want to improve themselves, it’s time to plan ahead and find a replacement.

Accept that you and your designer are not a match and there are other services you can try.

drowning in work cartoon

Fire before you burn out 🔥

I know you’re in “decision limbo” because you’re worried that your operations will be crippled if you fire your designer. Proper planning can solve that.

If you feel that a designer will fall short of your expectations even with the tools and training you provide, consider shopping around for solutions as early as now.

When you already have a solid backup plan, you can easily let go of the designer and begin a new partnership with a company that can meet your expectations.

Firing an employee may look heartless from an outsider’s point of view but it can teach a valuable lesson for both parties.

It can be a lesson for the designer to constantly improve themselves, and it can be a constant reminder for an owner like you to be objective in making difficult decisions to keep the company thriving.