> Sounds like they’re stealing that salary, not earning it.
On the contrary – if someone has been at a company for 9 months & had terrible early reviews, the company had about ~6 months to deal with them. In my experience, truly bad hires get lukewarm 30 day feedback, negative 3 month feedback, and are on a PIP soon after.
If you're there after 9 months, it suggests you've demonstrated some level of value to your employer.
I can assure you there are plenty of underperforming, incompetent and even flat out absent employees cozied up in hidden little niches at all kinds of companies that don’t let them go for a variety of reasons.