[johhns4]

However, you are forgetting one thing most people who are productive may not be loud enough to show that they are productive. It's not until they leave that you understand the work they have done.

This becomes even harder if it is top level down that makes the decisions, maybe cutting the manager at the same time. Here, it's impossible to know which has potential, who is running the show and who is doing very little.

We saw this with Twitter, when Elon Musk cut across the entire company and then had to beg people to come back because they realized this after the fact.

In most cases you'd be too stubborn to ask people to come back as it would look bad on you as a leader.