When you hear the “bad apple” defense, never forget the WHOLE proverb - A few bad apples spoils the barrel.

One bad squishy apple at the bottom of a container of apples will, if it’s not taken out immediately, cause the whole container to be quickly ruined. That’s the real lesson here - the ones that were bad from the beginning have done nothing but ruin the rest of the departments they are part of. All of them need to be replaced.