If a person on your team were to quit tomorrow, would you try to change their mind? Or would you accept their resignation, perhaps with a little relief? If the latter, you should give them a severance package now, and hire a star, someone you would fight to keep.

Unlike many companies, we practice:

— Adequate performance gets a generous severance package —

**That being said, since our performance bar is so high, it seems only fair that, if we take away people's jobs, we should give them enough money to get started on their next projects. We give everyone we dismiss a big severance—enough to take care of themselves and their families until they move on to another job.

Is it even ethical to let go of people who are doing their best but failing to deliver amazing results?

We pay our team members top of their personal market, so they are all paid very well. Part of that agreement is that they will play on the team as long as they are the best player for the spot. They understand that the needs of our company change quickly and that we expect outstanding performance. So, each team member who chooses to join the gaiia team opts in to our high-talent-density approach. We are transparent about our tactics and many team members are delighted to be surrounded by such high-quality colleagues and happy to put up with some job risk in return. Other people may prefer long-term job security, and they choose not to join gaiia. So yes, I believe our approach is ethical. It is also highly popular with most of our team members.

One team member does not have to lose for the other to win.

On the contrary, the more excellence we have on the team, the more we accomplish. The more we accomplish, the more we grow. The more we grow, the more positions we add to our roster. The more positions we add, the more space there is for high-performing talent.

<aside> <img src="/icons/alien-pixel_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/alien-pixel_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> We encourage our managers to apply the Keeper Test regularly. But we are careful to not have any firing quotas or ranking system. Rank-and-yank or "you must let go of X percent of your people" is just the type of rule-based process that we try to avoid.

These methods get managers to let go of mediocre employees, but they kill teamwork at the same time. We don't want team members competing against each other.

</aside>