Stop Feeding Wet Logs to Your Fire: Why Keeping Bad Hires Costs More Than Firing Them

Madusha Ranaweera
May 13
4 min read

We were excited to hire him. Multiple companies wanted him. We got him. It felt like a win.

Then the red flags started showing up.

He fought with our best performers. Behind our backs, he was a bully. To our faces, he told us what we wanted to hear. His arrogance bled through in small, then bigger ways.

But we didn't act.

We kept hoping he'd change. We gave consistent feedback. We told ourselves: "We're too invested in this hire. We can't afford to start over."

So we waited. We coached. We gave him chances.

And while we waited, our best people started withdrawing.

We had three great people resign in two months. Others noticeably stopped trying as hard.

The cost of keeping him was far higher than the cost of replacing him.

But we didn't see it until it was too late.

The Wet Log Effect

Here's what I've learned from watching this pattern play out, not just in my own leadership, but across organizations.

One wrong person is like a wet log in a fire.

They don't just fail to burn. They create smoke that chokes the flames around them.

Eventually, even your hottest sparks, your high performers, your innovators, start to fizzle out.

Not because they're less capable. Because they're exhausted from working twice as hard to compensate.

And here's the part most leaders miss:

It's not the resignation letter that kills culture. It's the eye-roll that kills ideas. The stalled project because one person "forgot." The quiet sabotage no one calls out. The slow erosion of ambition because people stop believing anything will change.

Why We Keep Feeding Wet Logs to the Fire

So why do we do it? Why do we keep people who are clearly hurting the team?

Fear of conflict. We don't want to have the hard conversation. We don't want to deal with the emotions, the pushback, the legal considerations.

Confusing "nice" with "necessary." We think being a good leader means giving people chances. And it does. But not infinite chances at the expense of everyone else.

Hoping time will fix behavior. It won't. Behavioral patterns are deeply ingrained. Without serious intervention and genuine willingness to change, they persist.

Being too invested in the hire to admit the mistake. We spent time recruiting them. We celebrated getting them. Admitting we were wrong feels like failure.

But here's the truth: your best people are watching.

And every day you tolerate the wet log is another day they're deciding whether to stay.

The Real Cost

When you keep the wrong person, you're not just keeping one problem employee. You're creating a cascade of problems:

Your high performers start doing less because they see mediocrity rewarded with patience and their excellence rewarded with more work.

Your team loses trust in your judgment. If you can't see what they see, or worse, if you see it but won't act, they question your leadership.

Your culture erodes. The standards you claim to have don't match the behavior you tolerate. And culture is defined by what you tolerate, not what you say you value.

Your best people leave. Not always immediately. But they start looking. And when they find something better, they're gone.

And by the time you finally do let the wrong person go, you've already lost more than you can easily replace.

What to Do Instead

1. Act faster.

If the red flags show up early, trust them. Waiting doesn't make hard decisions easier. It makes them costlier.

I've never regretted acting quickly on a bad fit. I've always regretted waiting.

2. Create accountability structures early.

90-day check-ins. Clear performance expectations. "Grow or go" plans with real timelines and support.

Don't just hope they'll figure it out. Give them a roadmap and a deadline.

3. Protect your fire.

Your high performers aren't infinite. Their energy, patience, and goodwill have limits. Don't ask them to carry dead weight indefinitely.

They didn't sign up to compensate for someone else's dysfunction. And they won't do it forever.

4. Help the wrong people exit with dignity, but exit.

Severance. Recommendations where appropriate. Compassion.

But don't confuse compassion with keeping someone who's actively harming the team.

True compassion is honest. It tells people when they're not in the right place. It helps them find a better fit. It doesn't string them along in a role where they're failing.

Final Thought: Who Are You Really Protecting?

When you keep the wrong person too long, ask yourself: who are you really protecting?

Not your team. They're suffering. Not the company. It's losing money and momentum. Not even the person you're keeping. They're in a role where they're clearly not succeeding.

You're protecting yourself. From the discomfort of the conversation. From admitting the hiring mistake. From the temporary gap their departure will create.

But that temporary discomfort is far less costly than the permanent damage of keeping them.

Stop feeding wet logs to your fire.

Your best people deserve better.