Yes like I said, pay out if the employee was just a bad performer. But I wouldn't pay if they acted in bad faith and knowingly did a worse job (which we can tell as founders/managers). So it depends. I am not paying out a bad faith employee just because I kept them a bit longer than I should have.
Unless you know everything going on in the employee’s life, and their every thought, you have no basis for being able to tell if an employee is acting in “bad faith” by “slacking”. Even just defining “slacking” is next to impossible.
By your standards? Maybe. But maybe you just have too high standards. Or maybe the employee is going through a particularity rough patch in their personal lives. Maybe they’re burned out. Maybe they lost a loved one and are still grieving. Maybe you never told them they’re underperforming and they have no idea. Maybe you just are so tunnel visioned on a particular thing you don’t realize the additional things the employee is doing outside their job.
There are a plethora of reasons for why someone’s performance may not match your expectations, and the amount that are in bad faith is already small and hard to differentiate from just being a bad performer. So no, unless you were an omniscient being, you likely don’t know what’s going on in the employees head, let alone if they’re intentionally slacking.
