I was a contractor for a large financial institution -- one you've heard of. They fired a number of their employees during a layoff a year before my contract ended.
They did it, not because I was cheaper (my contract certainly wasn't) but because they could get rid of the bottom 15%. And company rules limited my contractual ability to remain on.
I was kinda shocked at this. "Why wouldn't you keep the people you hired on over the contractors? Don't you hire the best?"
It turns out they hired to fill seats, not to hire the best.
Perhaps what causes this is managers who want to level up usually do so by commanding ever larger groups of people. And when they hire for that scenario they don't really care what kind of people they hire.
They did it, not because I was cheaper (my contract certainly wasn't) but because they could get rid of the bottom 15%. And company rules limited my contractual ability to remain on.
I was kinda shocked at this. "Why wouldn't you keep the people you hired on over the contractors? Don't you hire the best?"
It turns out they hired to fill seats, not to hire the best.