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Most managers simply gave them mediocre reviews and shunted them off to someplace where they weren’t perceived as doing any harm. (Believe me, just having some of these people in the building did harm to morale and it often, for various reasons, caused good people to find other employment.)

Yes. Even back in the 90s, a fellow I knew who was an exec at Proctor and Gamble had an employee who was useless and difficult. When he was told he was going to be let go, he laughed at them and said he had AIDS. They did not fire him. They did transfer him to the Boston office, and gave him a chair and a desk, and no assignments. It was that bad.

I have a better one. While in the Federal government as a political appointee under Reagan, we had an employee that was poison. She was a “friend” with a Senator. We had a legitimate need to open a one person field office far oversees (Northern Marianas). While you can’t fire civil service employees easily you can transfer them. So we sent her a directive transferring her to the Marianas.

She just got back flying from Europe from a vacation. She produced a Doctors note saying she had to refuse the reassignment due to health reasons caused by flying.

My Assistant Secretary was stumped. We checked and there was no cruise ship lines that would work. I then remembered about tramp steamers and found even today there are cargo ships you can book a passage room on.

We sent her a very nice letter, expressing our utmost concern about her health, and to accommodate her told her she had booking on a cargo ship and the date she had to be on it.

She quit.