I also understand that I have never had two employees whose skill sets matched so closely that one did not outshine the other in some fashion. Maybe I need to get some different drill press operators?
These were copy editors, web editors and production assistants. They were pretty much interchangeable.
During the coin flipping session, I always supported the female if it was a male/female decision and if two females were in contention, I backed the hottest of the two.
I did call the hottest one of the entire group -- who lost the coin toss, unfortunately -- and ratted out the boss who tried to hit on her by telling her he'd "gone to the mat for her" and "done everything he could." I guess everything he could was to call heads when the quarter flipped.
That was a really awful scene. At one point we'd agreed to keep one girl who was relatively useful when another boss got his pecker in a twist because he was losing his "assistant" who was absolutely worthless (and sort of ugly) but sucked up to him in a big way. When he kept throwing a fit, the main boss said "fine, we'll just cut them both."
He was fine with that. It pissed me off because a valuable employee lost her job (and she had kids) when a pompous prick threw a fit.
I understand progressive discipline. I wrote the handbook. And I read it too.