"You're Fired!"

I wish I were Donald, he doesn't seem to have a problem saying this to someone.

Ok, so I am not firing anyone per se. But my coworker C and I are having a sit down with two guys working on our project. We expect, in the end, to thank them for the time and effort (ha on both accounts) they have put into the project to this point, but we have people who actually WANT the hours we are offering. Especially this time of year while we are all waiting for money to come in and there are people we know looking for work.

Ugh, I just don't like doing this type of thing. I hate personnel issues. The main problem... the task lead that we assigned is not leading his task. It appears he has assigned it to someone else, namely someone we don't want running the task. The both of them *never* show for project meetings (one did e-mail an apology last week, he got caught up programming...), we never have any idea what is going on with their task, and there is no commitment to the project.

C thinks that we need to get a clear and verbal "Yes, I want to continue working on this project" in order for them to continue. I agree with her. But I am a wuss. She is a driver expressive... she will take care of it? Won't she?

So I e-mailed them a note with "read receipt", so I know that it has been opened explaining the purpose of the meeting and then sent a meeting request.

This is hard. I actually like these guys personally. But working with them professionally is like pulling teeth.