In a very small team somebody always ends up carrying the dead weight because the release dates do not move. I carried a complete slacker for a long time... everybody knew he was a slacker too mgmt t knew entire team knew and othing changed.
the problem is that in small teams, one person not pulling their weight does not just stay their problem it spills into everyone else’s life. Alaways longer hours and more stress. Missed time with family because of this retart. Burnout + resentment. And because the deadlines are real the relible people end up absorbing the damage while the slacker just keeps floating along. What made things worse was all the 2ndary drama and problems that came with this bozo . It stopped being just a work issue and started causing actual life stress outside work - so you know how that goes.... And after enough time u stop feeling angry and just start feeling exhausted that everyone can clearly see the problem but nobody with authority is willing to deal with it.
I got lucky as he left just about three years into this.
Eh.