If everyone agrees the person was less qualified, probably yes. But layoffs often hit people who at least one other person you want to keep thought was good, wh

If everyone agrees the person was less qualified, probably yes. But layoffs often hit people who at least one other person you want to keep thought was good, which hits morale, which in turn also drags down people. Partly it's because the web of connections is complex, and there are lots of reasons one of the remaining employees might have respected the laid-off employee, any one of them enough to instill a bit of a grudge against your decision-making (or even incredulity that you fired the now-fired person before them). In a way it's the worst with well-run teams that gel. The ideal situation is that everyone works out what they're good at and develop a bit of a rapport. But then if you fire one of the team members, everyone else on the team has a quite first-hand reason to believe the now-fired person was valuable.