He was good in 2014. Great in 2018. Coasting by 2022. By this year he was costing me callbacks, customer complaints, and morale on the crew. Talked to him 4 times in 18 months. Wrote up 3 specific issues. Set 60-day improvement targets. He hit nothing. Walking him to the door was still the hardest thing I've done as an owner this year. The lesson I keep relearning: techs don't decline overnight. You watch them slip for years and tell yourself "next quarter." Then you wake up and realize they're hurting your other guys, and the good ones are starting to ask why. When was the hardest fire you've had? How long did you wait too long?