re: #252 reine.de.tout

I worked in HR for 30 years, and honestly - I’ve never known a company to layoff experienced employees in order to hire new, lower cost employees.

For one thing - “lower cost” employees are not necessarily lower cost. Training costs for new employees can be huge (depending on the business). Then there is the cost of errors made by new and inexperienced employees. Then, of course, there are unemployment costs that have to be paid by the employer for the laid off employees. It’s just often not worth the lower salary costs to let experienced employees go in favor of newer lower paid employees.

Most employers know these things.

We’ll see. Where I work, some managers have been floating exactly this idea for some time now - hire a bunch of fresh-out college grads to replace the “expensive” older employees. And this has been circulating since before the stimulus plan; now, their ideas come with an actual monetary incentive.

You’re correct that cost savings may be illusory in reality. Believe me, though - there are a lot of less than bright managers out there, and a short-term horizon that encourages feather-bedding and immediate gain with the intention of moving on before the downside becomes apparent.

I would be a lot more comfortable if there were safeguards such as those I mentioned put in place. If they’re not needed, well, they don’t cost anything and can simply be ignored. If they are needed, but aren’t there, the damage will be impossible to repair.