> People who are net-negative on a team may be very personable and hence emotionally difficult to fire. Those people are rare and generally caught by much ligh

> People who are net-negative on a team may be very personable and hence emotionally difficult to fire. Those people are rare and generally caught by much lighter screening. > And of course the U.S. does have a number of protected classes, who can be very difficult & expensive to fire for cause (because the assumption is that they were not fired for cause). I don't think you are using "for cause" in the proper legal sense. Firing "for cause" is indeed an time-consuming and potentially expensive process because of the effects on things like unemployment benefits. Firing "without cause" is not, and is permissible in almost every state. What you are describing are potential accusations of illegal discrimination. This is largely orthogonal to cause.