&gt; but they can&#x27;t do that while retaining staff and recruiting new staff effectively<p>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&#x27;ve seen it at many companies that are home-run-level successful (i.e. there&#x27;s no way one could qualify them as having trouble recruiting). I&#x27;m not sure I could name even one company that is &quot;ostracized&quot; for their hiring practices.<p>The only way that I can reconcile this theory with my experience is if I take the maximally extreme definition of &quot;ruthless&quot; ... 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.<p>I would be curious (and pleased) to hear if this is just an unusual sample of experiences I&#x27;ve had.<p>Edit: let me clarify that when I say &quot;I haven&#x27;t seen measurable negative consequences&quot; I don&#x27;t mean that <i>I</i> have done that to anybody. But it has happened to upwards of 10 people I know.