philibusters
Active Member
In my military career then a decade as a defense contractor, there were more than a few that did next to nothing, other than showing up at the jobsite, but still got a paycheck. Ask 1 of the supervisors and they claim there isn't anything they can do to get rid of them nor make them productive.
As far as I know, federal gov't service is the only field where this happens. Any other sector and you are gone in a heartbeat.
They could get rid of them if they really were motivated to. However, the supervisors usually aren't as motivated as supervisors in the private sector because their job is less performance driven. But it would take a long time, like a year, but if the supervisor really wanted to document the employee was not performing at a satisfactory level they could do so. First they would have to give them multiple letters stating how to improve their work. Then the supervisor would have to draw up a performance improvement plan and takes steps to try to help the employee follow the plan. Then the supervisor would have to continue documenting everything and they could fire the employee. This would probably be a year long process. Usually the only time a supervisor is motivated enough to do this is when they have a personal grudge against the employee in addition to the employees poor work performance.