[tomkarlo]

Even poor performance is the fault of both the company and the employee to some degree... unless something changed, the company hired them for something they weren't suited to do, or failed to develop them properly. And generally, other employees don't know exactly how much someone underperformed, so it's moot from their standpoint.

The fact they were "fairly well compensated" is irrelevant, by the way. Severance isn't paid because people were underpaid.