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The Hidden Costs of Letting Low Performers Stay Too Long

  • Writer: Dan Cholewa
    Dan Cholewa
  • Jul 29
  • 4 min read

Updated: Aug 4

Business team pulling a rope in a tug-of-war, symbolizing performance imbalance.

If you’ve been in business long enough, you’ve faced this. There’s someone on your team who isn’t cutting it. You’ve coached them, supported them, adjusted expectations, maybe even justified their role to yourself or to others. But the results haven’t changed. And if you’re honest, deep down you’ve already made the decision. You’re just not acting on it yet.


Keeping someone who’s underperforming feels like the “nice” thing to do. You convince yourself you’re giving them another shot, or showing loyalty, or buying time until the next hire. But the truth is that inaction comes with a cost. And it’s usually far greater than most leaders realize. There’s a financial cost, of course, but it doesn’t stop there. The longer you let that person stay, the more you put your culture, your team’s energy, and your own leadership credibility at risk.


Let’s break down what it’s really costing you to delay the hard call.


You’re Paying a Premium for Low Performers' Underperformance


From a financial standpoint, low performers are expensive. You’re paying for a seat that isn’t producing at the level it should. That salary could be allocated toward a high-impact hire, reinvested into your operations, or used to lighten the load on your best people.


What makes it worse is that underperformance usually comes with hidden costs. You’re investing more time managing them. You’re fixing their mistakes. You’re doing the emotional labor of hoping things will turn around. It all adds up quickly. You might not see it in a line item, but your business feels it.


You’re Sending the Wrong Message to Your Team


Your team watches how you lead, not just what you say. When someone consistently underdelivers and nothing happens, it sends a message that mediocrity is acceptable.


Even your top performers start to question things. They wonder why they’re working late, pushing hard, and holding themselves accountable when others are allowed to coast. They might not say it directly, but they feel it. And over time, that quiet frustration turns into disengagement.


This is how culture erodes. Not in a single event, but through repeated moments where standards get bent. People stop speaking up. They stop leaning in. And eventually, they stop caring.


Your Best People Are Picking Up the Slack of Low Performers


When someone falls short, someone else is always picking it up. That someone is usually your top performer. They’re the ones taking the extra call, staying late to finish the task, and cleaning up what others missed. They won’t complain at first. They’re built to execute. But eventually, even they start to wear down.


The resentment builds slowly. First they question the team. Then they question your leadership. And then they question whether they belong in your business at all.


Retention issues almost always start here. Not because people want to leave, but because they’re tired of carrying someone who should have been addressed a long time ago.


Your Leadership Credibility Takes a Hit


One of the hardest truths to face is this: your team sees what you’re unwilling to do. If you talk about accountability and performance but refuse to act on it when it matters, your words lose weight.


You start to lose the edge in your leadership. The standards you set begin to feel more like suggestions. And over time, people stop taking your direction as seriously. It’s not rebellion. It’s misalignment. And it starts with the leader not protecting the culture.


The Whole System Gets Out of Sync


Low performers don’t just do less. They interrupt flow. Their tasks get delayed. Their projects need more handholding. Their pace is off. And because of that, everyone else has to adjust around them.


It slows your operations down. It creates friction where there should be rhythm. Teams that should be moving together start hesitating. People stop trusting the process because it’s constantly being disrupted by someone who is misaligned.


This affects everything from daily execution to your long-term goals.



So What’s the Move?


Start by asking yourself the hard questions. If this person gave notice today, would you be relieved or disappointed? If you were hiring for this role again, would you rehire them? If the answer is no, then what are you waiting for?


Letting someone go is never easy. But keeping someone who isn’t a fit is much harder. It weighs on you, it frustrates your team, and it slows your business down. Every week you wait to act is a week where standards slip further away from where you want them to be.


If you’ve done the work to coach them, if you’ve set clear expectations, and if the results still haven’t changed, then it’s time. Not out of emotion or frustration, but out of alignment. Your job as a leader is to make decisions that protect the health of the business. That means doing what’s right, not just what’s comfortable.



Final Thought


You don’t owe anyone a job. You owe your team clarity. You owe your business high standards. And you owe yourself the peace of knowing that you’re leading from a place of integrity.


Leadership is not about avoiding hard conversations. It’s about having them when it matters most.


If you’ve been holding off on this decision, consider this your signal. Make the move. Reclaim the standard. Your team and your future will thank you for it.

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