I don't think it's down to managers to save employees per-se, but giving them feedback in a timely fashion about their performance and clearly communicating expectations is good. I also do think that managers tend not to exercise softer options to help, like those that will expose weak employees to good examples (e.g. involving them in code reviews by strong coders, pairing them with others, etc.). I have seen a "no hope" employee become a diligent, thorough and crucial team worker this way (and I was deeply impressed with him).<p>I have also saw two managers at different levels tolerate and ignore a blatantly unqualified and unskilled employee for nearly two years before firing him and lying to him about why, blaming headcount limits. That guy to this day doesn't know why he was fired, and since has reapplied to our company. I think this is probably not that uncommon a story, and maybe, possibly, if we had taken some proactive steps, we could have helped that guy a bit. I was also disturbed by the culture that will ignore problems and let people walk around with them instead of giving them opportunities to improve on their own.