Stop Asking “When to Fire” and Start Asking “What Did We Miss?”
If your workplace is a revolving door of poor performance, the problem isn’t your people—it’s your priorities.
Let’s Get Real About Toxic Employees
I recently saw a post on LinkedIn that read:
“Want to lose your top talent fast? Keep protecting the wrong person.”
It came with a bright, bold infographic about the “five signs it’s time to fire someone.”
And you know what? It pissed me off.
Not because performance issues don’t exist—they do. But because this mindset is the exact reason workplace culture is broken. This idea that if someone isn’t performing, you just let them go, as if people are disposable parts in a machine. It’s the most convenient scapegoat—and it completely ignores the actual problem: how they were led.
If You Keep Hiring the Wrong People… That’s On You
Let’s be clear. Most employees don’t walk into a company thinking, I’d like to disengage, make excuses, and spread toxicity.
They become that way.
And the environment you create is what shapes that behavior.
Here’s the part no one likes to admit:
You hired them.
You onboarded them (or didn’t).
You coached them (probably with a checklist, not real support).
You left them to fend for themselves in a culture of fear, pressure, and unclear expectations.
And now you want to call them the problem?
The “Five Signs It’s Time to Terminate” – Let’s Reframe Them
1. Repeated Issues:
If “coaching and training haven’t worked,” the real question is: Have you actually coached them? Most companies call a performance warning a “coaching moment.” That’s not coaching—that’s damage control. Real coaching takes time, curiosity, and two-way feedback.
2. Constant Excuses:
Excuse-making is often trauma-triggered. If someone is constantly deflecting, ask: What environment have we created that makes ownership unsafe? Are they scared to fail? Is their boss emotionally intelligent? Or are you dealing with a human who's learned self-preservation from a lifetime of being punished for imperfection?
3. Toxic Behavior:
Toxicity isn’t born, it’s bred. If someone’s behavior is lowering morale, it didn’t start in a vacuum. What systems rewarded that behavior? Who modeled it? What allowed it to fester?
4. Lack of Effort:
Disengagement is not laziness—it’s hopelessness. If someone stops trying, it’s because they’ve learned that effort doesn’t equal reward. They don’t see a future. They don’t feel seen. And that’s not on their ambition. That’s on your leadership.
5. Hurting the Business:
Yes, sometimes someone needs to go. But if you find yourself constantly having to make those decisions, you’ve built a system that breeds turnover. That’s not a them problem. That’s a you problem.
You Don’t Need More Unicorns—You Need to Start Nurturing Humans
The biggest lie in business is that performance is purely individual. It’s not. It’s environmental. Cultural. Systemic.
If you keep hiring people who “don’t work out,” maybe they didn’t fail you—maybe you failed them.
You want top talent?
Treat every single hire like they already are.
Invest in their growth. Give them clarity. Make them feel like they matter.
Because when people feel like they belong, they show up. They grow. They win.
And when they win—you win.
Final Word: Accountability Cuts Both Ways
If you’re quick to say your employee isn’t taking accountability, but your company has no internal reflection process, no manager development, no onboarding beyond a login email—you’re not taking accountability either.
You don’t fix workplace culture by cutting the “bad apples.”
You fix it by growing better roots.
