Speaking as a former TL in the MW region, it can be harder than hell to get someone fired. Especially for performance-based issues. First you have to write them up (which, at my store, the STL and TMSS had to approve of) or give them a verbal warning (depending on what the STL and TMSS decides is appropriate for the issue at hand). Then comes the second write-up, which again needs to be approved, as an Unsatisfactory Work Warning. Then comes the third write-up, which is the Final Warning. Or that can be skirted by giving the TM a Personal Improvement Plan (PIP) where the STL/TMSS and TL sit down with the TM and come up with a game plan for their improvement in the areas they're lacking and give the TM a time-line for when they want these issues to be corrected. And then there are Final Final Warnings that exist depending on the circumstances. And then when it comes down to firing someone, the STL/TMSS have to check with either their regional, or sometimes global, TMSS leadership to see if the TM can be fired. And there you really have to hope that you have dotted all of your "i"s and crossed all of your "t"s correctly, because even one small misused word in any of the former write-ups could cause the whole thing to start over again from step one. It was much easier to fire someone for attendance issues because that was pretty black and white. Anything else that didn't involve theft or violence could be this huge, long drawn out affair just to get rid of the dead weight. Unless the TL can catch the TM before their 90 day grace period ends and has the proper documentation to prove that they have tried training and teaching the new TM, but it just wasn't working out.