What Do You Have to Do to Get Fired at this Company?

So many companies have these people, the ones who everyone else is wondering how they didn’t get fired for their latest screw up, for sleeping on the job, or some other offence the average employee would be let go for.

In his book “Good to Great” Jim Collins said it was important to get “…the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats and the wrong people off the bus”. The last part is usually the hardest for so many reasons, especially the precedent set by their boss for not firing them for egregious offences, that now when responsible for taking the company to the next level they are incapable of letting them go.

While this may sound cold to some, the real victims of keeping someone like this employed are the good employees who choose not to rock the boat. Your covering for the bad employee is like second hand smoke slowly killing off the good employees or at least their will power to be a better employee. After all, if so and so comes in late every day, is not qualified to perform the basic duties of their job why should the other employees feel inclined to put in the extra effort.