I clearly remember, the first time that I need to fire a person. I was working in a global IT company, and he is a server engineer, assigned to one of our clients (let's say his name is John). His team leader has informed me that John has been unable to perform well on tasks assigned to him, delayed some tasks that should have been done regularly (perform backup, log monitoring, etc - all of those are server engineers daily task). Although John has been a role model for his attendance, but the real problem is - he is not performing. I have talked to him more than once, several sessions are with his supervisor, and others are one-on-one - just him and myself. I tried to understand what seems to be the problem - is it problem at home (relationship with his wife, kids, etc), financial issue, or even problem with his colleague or his supervisor, etc - but there seems to be no issue. I have constantly remind him to talk to me if there's anything at all, because if there's no issue, but his supervisor saw him under-performed, there will be problems for sure.
He was given written warnings (several times) by his supervisors for some of the task assigned to him was not properly managed, and I have confirmed with him again, one-on-one, but he said that the mistake was on his side, and it was purely human-error (lack of sleep, mistype, the whole nine-yard). Until one time, he messed up big time (problems with one of the servers, and his team tried to restore the backup - but it was not there). So, they need to retrieve from a past archive backup (and lost about a week work). Clients filed a complaint, and our Boss want to have him dismissed.
In his case, I believe he is under-qualified for his job. That way, he often felt lost when he need to perform his job. But he is too (shy or proud ?) to admit this. I tried to approached him and ask him whether this is the case, but he kept his guard up and did not admit this. If currently - you yourself in this position (hired, but realized that you are under-qualified for your position), there are several things that you can do :
1) Resigned - first, and easiest steps to do; however, if you have some fighting spirit and believe you can do this, read on ...
2) Find a mentor/senior that willing to teach you. If you are female and attractive, it's even easier (I don't mean to be sexist, but not many female in IT industry - and a lot of guys are willing to teach). However, I find Singaporean colleagues are less than willing to share their knowledge, due to strict competitions in Singapore (the whole kia-su culture, etc - Google it, you will understand).
3) Learn, study, teach yourself. There are tons of books, materials out there (on the web, etc) that you can read and learn. Moreover, people are more willing to teach you when you have some understanding, than a completely "blank" (I know nothing, please teach me). There's no such thing as a free lunch.
When an individual is willing to learn, study, and he/she is learning at very good speed, also have good attitude - keep them. But when the individual is slow in learning, not smart, poor attitude, last to come but first to leave (or worst - always late) - do not hesitate - fired them. Bad seed can spread easily to another one FAST, like wildfire !
Back to John's case - I have to fired him. He messed BIG time, and boss instructions are clear - fired him, and hired a new one.
PS : I am not the one that hired John in the first place - he was hire by my predecessor. And it's not easy being someone supervisor / boss - you need to EARN the respect - it's not given.
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