Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a project that involves collaborating with a team I didn’t personally hire. What I experienced was nothing short of cultural shock. It took me a while to even grasp how this was possible. I call it the no-performer phenomenon.

So, what is a no-performer?

A no-performer is someone who contributes nothing to a project. No code, no experiments, no data analysis, not even a single meaningful question. They show up to meetings but add no value to discussions—as if the project is something completely unrelated to them.

Companies and HR departments are often obsessed with identifying and managing low performers. But the real question is: what percentage of their workforce consists of no-performers?