[ClaireSolt]

That is an amazing number, but I remember the phenomenon of sidelining. There was a man who just sat around and read the newspapers in my husband's office when he worked for the USIA. Couldn't do the work and couldn't be fired.

[ncountylee]

Only 1.6 percent of probationary employees are terminated. After the first year of government service, the rate of termination drops to 0.5 percent and that figure doesn't change much for the next 20 years of government service. In contract, companies like Microsoft expect that at least six percent of their workforce will be terminated during a given year--presumably so that employees who do not perform as well as others will be fired so the company can hire people who can do a better job.

http://www.fedsmith.com/articles/articles.showarticle.db.php?intArticleID=715