Maybe a slightly different take on this. If the person is a walking disaster both personally and professionally, and you have given it a shot, and their is no improvement, then its time to cut and run. 100% in agreement with the daycare statement!

However, there are those employees their are just about impossible to manage, but are huge assets to your organization by the one or two key things they bring to the table, that one might need to hire 2 or 3 new people to take up the slack should you can them. Those situations make firing a much more difficult situation. Sometimes you have to eat it in the shorts and let them go anyhow, but it sure puts a hit to the p&l for quite a while. Othertimes it may be acceptable to put some more time into figuring out what makes them click.

Years back, I had one guy that could do the work of 5 people when he was on. In addition, when something took a header, he was the one to solve the problem. However, when it came to day to day issues, it would have been better if he didn't even show.

The key was figuring out what motivated him, and what served to frustrate him, and then balancing the tasks as needed. For example, if he was not swamped, expect lots of headaches, if he was, things went a lot smoother, so the key was to keep his plate overfilled constantly. Yet another thing was to manage the people he worked with. If it was a challenging task, it was best he was not stuck with those not up to par. If it was a boring task, then having him cross train others worked pretty well.

However, the employee as desribed by the op appears a whiner, and thats where I fail in people management. I subscribe to the politically incorrect style of paternalistic dictator style of managment. High expectations bordering on unreasonable, combined with a high level of care and action when it comes to my employees. However, such an approach does not lend itself to compassion on those who whine. They won't come near expectations, and their will be no appreciation on their part when I take care of things for them either.

Sure wish I had something more concrete to say