[ripjaygn]

Yes it's almost impossible to fire govt employees like you say, which is why many get away with doing the bare minimum, if that. That's natural human tendency.

If fired, they can appeal to the MSPB and then file lawsuits, as a manager, it's not worth it spending all your time trying to get rid of one underperformer. It's free taxpayer money after all and not like your company will become uncompetitive or bankrupt if it has hundreds of thousands of underperformers.