> but they can't do that while retaining staff and recruiting new staff effectively I wish I had a better way to ask this, but... can you actually provide any

> but they can't do that while retaining staff and recruiting new staff effectively I wish I had a better way to ask this, but... can you actually provide any evidence this is true? It is directly counter to my ~10 years of experience, and I've seen it at many companies that are home-run-level successful (i.e. there's no way one could qualify them as having trouble recruiting). I'm not sure I could name even one company that is "ostracized" for their hiring practices. The only way that I can reconcile this theory with my experience is if I take the maximally extreme definition of "ruthless" ... something like firing someone in their first week after enticing them to leave a job and move across country. That, of course, will get you a bad reputation quickly. But I personally have not seen measurable negative consequences for firing alleged low performers for little to no reason within a 2-3 month period. I would be curious (and pleased) to hear if this is just an unusual sample of experiences I've had. Edit: let me clarify that when I say "I haven't seen measurable negative consequences" I don't mean that I have done that to anybody. But it has happened to upwards of 10 people I know.