One more time: please fire marginal employees.

Abstract

Managers should not second-guess themselves when contemplating termination of marginal employees, i.e., those with sustained poor attitudes or performances. Poor performers should not be allowed to disadvantage an otherwise successful team; management ought not to retain someone it cannot fully support; and termination may be interpersonally excruciating but is organizationally very invigorating. This article identifies ten reasons why marginal employees prevail and are not dealt with in organizations. Acknowledging these barriers is a valuable first step in moving from analysis to synthesis as concerns removing them in the future.