Here is a true story:

A few years ago we had a whiney employee - and business was bad. This was November of 2001 when the economy was in the toilet.

We had secured financing to fund our future but we had a 2 month gap where we had to survive on our own funds. We had no choice but to cut costs.

We got all the hourly employees together and told them we were cutting them to half time temporarily. We also told them we (the owners) we not taking any form of payment for 2 months.

We then took the whiney guy aside - he was in sales - and told him we had to cut his salary in half but we'd double his commission for this time but we wanted him to work full time. So literally he got a MUCH better deal than anyone else in the long run - our sales cycle is like 6 months anyway.

He flat out refused to have a pay cut - so we fired him - we had NO choice but to cut costs and he wasn't willing to be part of the team where everyone was taking it in the shorts.

So anyway - he clears out his desk and left. After he had left we went out and our employees were all smiling and cheering. Seriously - an hour after we cut their pay in half for two months - they were more happy then I had seen them in a long time because the whiney guy was gone.

Moral of the story: Keeping someone like this around is BAD. BAD BAD BAD. Do your due diligence but fire them ASAP if they do not turn around.