Patrick Altoft has had enough of it, and he argues that more companies should be staging "break-ups" with their search firms if they're delivering mediocre
performance.
Altoft argues that it's the result of business practices that have become ingrained in the search industry: namely, the idea of working really hard to produce stellar results at the beginning of the relationship (often at a loss in terms of time vs. compensation), and then slacking off in later months because search firm principals feel they've "earned" it.