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There's a certain type of employee that I've never really handled well. I call them stragglers: the people that you know in your heart of hearts will never quite be good enough, but are not so bad that you obviously need to get them out the door at the first possible opportunity.

It's not that I mind sacking people. I don't enjoy the process, obviously – but if they're criminally incompetent, or wholly amoral, or shockingly bone idle, then I have no qualms about the outcome; for me, these people are like a virus that's making my little baby company ill, so I need to purge it before it does any lasting damage. The problem comes with people that you're not really sure deserve to be sacked. They may not even have done anything wrong, as such – but you just can't shake the feeling that they're always going to be a bit second-rate. And that's the fastest route to having a second-rate company (and thus to me having a second-rate bank balance).

The prevailing wisdom (well, if you count business books as such) is that your choice here is very simple: if they fit the culture, you keep them and train them up; if they don't, you get rid. Now the second part's a no-brainer (as someone once said, I'd rather have a hole than an a$$hole) but it's also rare, because we don't hire many people who don't fit. For me, the issue tends to be the ones who are perfectly nice people, but just aren't as good as they seemed to be at interview.

There are two reasons why I hate this. One, it means I messed up the recruitment process – and I hate being proved wrong. Two, I know that getting them up to speed will be a lengthy process, involving substantial time and effort from people with better things to do. Frankly, I just don't have the patience to see that through, and I'm not convinced that a business of our size can afford to be doing it – particularly since in 95% of cases, they'll never end up being better than average. In fact, it just feels like you're compounding your original mistake, by wasting even more time correcting it.

I realise that you're not supposed to admit to this kind of thing. These days, every business is desperate to paint itself as a nurturing employer, which cares deeply about its staff and invests heavily in their development. But I can't help it; I just find that whole process incredibly boring and frustrating. However many fluffy HR bibles I force myself to read, I can't shake the instinct that if people need that much work, they're more trouble than they're worth. So I invariably try and palm it off on my HR manager, who invariably employs too much carrot and not enough stick, and the problem doesn’t get solved.

I decided this week that I've got at least one and possibly two stragglers at the moment. And to be honest, this is not really a good time to be carrying passengers – it's not like last year, when we were so busy that we just needed bums on seats. But you also feel a certain obligation to your staff at times like these – you don't want to be (or be seen to be) the type of company that slashes and burns as soon as it gets a bit sticky. In some ways, it’d be nice to be one of these big US companies like GE or Goldman Sachs, which always chops the bottom 10% - but you can’t really get away with that here.

The nice thing to do would be to take these two under my wing and develop them; the best thing for the business might be to get rid now. And in times like these, I’m not sure where my first loyalty should lie. Answers on a postcard...

secretdiary@managementtoday.com

Previous blogs:
Taking the rise
Breaking and Entering
The importance of Plan B
Competitive selling
The elephant in the room
Office relationships
Money troubles
I Don't Need No Bad Advice
Value creation
HR Therapy
Difficult people
Partnership Troubles
Bad debts
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