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After Uproar, Disney Cancels Tech Worker Layoffs
An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times previously reported that Disney made laid-off workers train their foreign replacements. The Times now reports that Disney has reversed its decision to lay off the workers and canceled training of the replacements. This follows public uproar, two investigations by the Department of Labor into outsourcing firms, complaints to the Justice Department, and calls for an investigation into the H-1B Visa program by Senator Bill Nelson. One of the workers said, "We were told our jobs were continuing and we should consider it as if nothing had happened until further notice." A former Disney employee who was forced to take an early retirement shared his personal thoughts on the matter in a Google+ post.
One of the workers said, "We were told our jobs were continuing and we should consider it as if nothing had happened until further notice."
Yeah, that notice will be updated employment terms to try to aggressive prevent people from leaking out the details when they attempt to do the H1-B swap the next time.
I'm sure this does not effect moral at all......
And start looking anyway. This is a temp stop gap to keep people from rioting, they'll hope the masses forget about it and can try this again in 6 months. Don't give them the chance, get out of dodge while you can
I'll totally just go back to my job now, with no loss in enthusiasm or loyalty. It's like nothing happened! Everything is okay. I will continue working for Disney and we'll be best friends forever.
Disney completed the layoffs of the Florida IT division (Walt Disney World)
This was ANOTHER set of layoffs for ABC Broadcasting comprising about 35 workers that were going to undergo the same process. ABC's has been halted but, AFAIK, the Florida IT division is still SOL.
...that H-1B workers need to stay the hell out of.
What, was his MySpace account unavailable or something?
#DeleteChrome
like a doomesday counter or a count that shows the number of accident free days at work.
but this would be a constant reminder and a bloody nose to disney, how evil this h1b policy is and how evil DISNEY is.
'its been X days since disney last laid off US workers'. and when they do more evil shit, that counter gets reset (or, rather, its timestamp does).
too many ignorant americans have NO IDEA how fucked up disney is. they believe the hype and drink the koolaid and continue to buy their crotchfruit more and more disney merch.
people need to realize how evil this company is and that they are NOT worth giving your money to under any circumstances at all.
a public counter that stays up (yeah, disney has lots of lawyers so not sure how you can keep it running under pressure of lawsuit, even though it would be fair to have this be told about them) would really keep this issue alive, long after disney has buried it in the news.
disney should be the poster child of what is wrong with h1b. no one but us techies realize the h1b problem. the world needs to see this (at least the US does). disney might be the proper wake-up call to finally make people realize how badly we have sold our own people out ;(
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
not
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
Manson family but family, still.
The board should direct the termination of the executive responsible in such a way that it is termination for failing to abide by Disney, Florida and federal labor guidelines so that they don't get a severance. Since most of the employees are still there, there's no wrongful termination lawsuit they can bring against Disney so the risk to Disney by admitting that they caught an executive violating the rules and acted accordingly should be small.
That depends. How much do you value your freedom?
If you knew that you were being fired anyway, why on Earth would you assent to training your replacement? If somebody told me that, I'd march into their office and say "You, and ESPECIALLY your family, can get fucked." Then I'd hock a loogie on their desk and walk out, flipping the office the bird on the way.
Is it the "don't burn your bridges and get a good reference" thing? Because if it were me, I'd be much more impressed with a candidate that was willing to stand up for themselves than I would be with somebody who meekly put up with something like this. Some people (such as H1-B supporters) are just fundamentally bad human beings and need to be called out on it. That's not a bad thing. I'd rather have principled workers than mindless drones.
Ok, so you thoroughly demotivate your workers. You insult them. You treat them like idiots. Yeah, we think so little of your jobs that we're going to import untrained minimum wage foreigners to replace you, and oh, by the way, before you leave, you have to train them which button to push when the light comes on.
You even complete the layoffs of one division. (Florida.)
And then, responding to Bad Press, as part of damage control, you tell the remaining employees that they get to keep their jobs. At least, for now, until the news cycle passes.
What employee in their right mind would *not* spend every moment looking for a new job at that point? What responsible individual (financially responsible to self and family) would *not* use this opportunity as paid job search?
So, Disney may have quieted down some small portion of the uproar. But they're still going to lose all of that tribal knowledge, guaranteed. And they're going to have the most disgruntled, (old workers) and nonfunctional (imported workers with no training or support) IT department of any company still in business.
I foresee a time when the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is populated with live H1-B actors, because nobody can figure out how to make the animatronics work anymore. Might be an improvement, except the guests will have to swim through the moat.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Important enough that they couldn't "just" be replaced by H-1B workers that were supposed to have skills that were unavailable in the US, the current employees were being required to train the H-1B workers in order to give them the skills and knowledge they needed to perform the job.
BTW, importance of the job has fuck-all to do with the boss getting their quarterly bonus for cutting payroll.
You have a bit more time to polish up your resumes. Don't treat it as anything else.
Economic reality makes cheap labour too tempting. They will try again. They only need to try once, with insufficient negative reaction, for the move to go through. Then a move in the reverse direction will seem so expensive as to be unworkable.
"Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always." -- IRA after the Brighton bombing failed to kill Margaret Thatcher.
John_Chalisque
I sent Disney a mail to the office of the CEO and complained about the terrible treatment of those American workers (I am not American BTW) but I did get a reply and I like to think that everyone who did the same helped with the cause.
People laughed when I said I had done it, but it proves I did a tiny bit to help some jobs and I feel good, damnit :)
http://www.writeitfor.us - Writing IT for the IT generation.
I'm guessing this will continue until the public eye is no longer on them all the time. I've posted previously about this - Disney is not a low-margin business with a need to reduce IT spending. Just their theme parks alone must generate millions per day. To use a Disney analogy, they probably store all their free cash in Uncle Scrooge's money bin. They're very similar to the way Apple is right now -- Apple is immune to market forces; they take 30% of every purchase people make with their ultra high margin iPhones, and their margin on laptop and desktop PCs is stratospheric. Disney is immune to market forces simply because they have so many rabid fans.
The fact that companies like this are resorting to H1-Bing their IT departments is very disturbing. Just because they're not doing this particular exercise doesn't mean they're not looking to do it when the heat is off later on. Again, I would expect this from a traditional retailer or similar low-margin business...not Disney.
Unfortunately, I'm dealing with this now - a product manager in charge of one of the medium-margin products I do design/engineering work for has the offshoring, low cost country bug in their head right now. I can't hire anyone to supplement our staff locally, but I can have all the foreign contractors I want because "they're so cheap." I'm sure there's lots of success stories for the outsourcers to cite, but I've never had good luck. Basically, anything we hand over to an offshore team to implement has to be documented as if we were sitting there doing it, and they still come back with questions. The problem is this -- you will never convince an MBA that it's worth it to have a few people making more money than 50 people making 20% of what you're paying the onshore staff.
for 1099ers W2 contractors working for a firm / outsource don't fail under that rule.
Perhaps you could site some articles so the rest of us can be educated as to why they are evil?
I'm not in the habit of taking people's word for it.
I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?
Good. You know it would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
I guess Disney peaked and it is time to sell. https://www.google.com/search?q=disney+stock+price&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
I recommend a google search "disney + evil". Should be eye opening
The most obvious one is the Disney Copyright Extension Act
After making piles of money on stuff from the public domain, Disney has fought to have copyrights almost perpetually extended. Almost every major film title Disney released for several decades was co-opting stuff in the public domain.
Di$ney is a ruthless corporation, always has been. They'll steam roll over anybody who gets in their way.
start here.
Honestly, if you've never heard any of this, you've been living under a rock for decades.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Yet, in firms like IBM, it is OK to do it internally. No uproar about that, sure, OK, whatever. Pick and choose what looks best...
The "temporary" part of the H-1 visa was eliminated decades ago.
It's a small world after all!
"We were told our jobs were continuing and we should consider it as if nothing had happened until further notice."
Pro-tip: act as if something did happen and get another job quickly. In their eyes the problem is that they were exposed, not that they did this in the first place. They will almost certainly still do it.
Do you have ESP?
for 1099ers W2 contractors working for a firm / outsource don't fail under that rule.
That's an unfortunately common misunderstanding.
There are a lot of things bunched into the "contractor" name in recent years:
A. Working for a company under a 1099 tax reporting system, the person operates under their own business independent of the company. This is a real "independent contractor".
B. Working for a company under a W2 tax reporting system, the regular employee loses their job at the end of the temporary employment. This is a temporary worker or contingent employment.
C. Working for a company under a W2 tax reporting system, but that company is closely working with another company and the individual is assigned to work under their purview. This has many different names.
The guidelines they are supposed to use, which Microsoft and many others have gotten in trouble with, is when they bring in people in group A -- independent contractors under the 1099 tax system -- and treat them as though they are group B or C -- regular employees under the W2 tax system whose employment contract may or may not have a built-in termination date. This is mostly about tax differences, since the government generally gets less revenue from option A.
Many companies will bring in people through contracting companies like Deloitte or SAP. That is case C. These people are employed by one company as regular employees, and the two businesses have a working agreement. The individual is a regular worker and needs to have all the regular labor laws followed. This arrangement can happen for many years. Giving non-technical examples, you may have a car rental company with a single worker at an auto repair facility, or have building security hired through one company where the individuals report to work at the facility yet are hired, paid, and given other benefits by another business.
To confuse things, many times the companies involved in option C will hire their workers under option B. The workers are brought in from a separate company like Deloitte (option C), and those workers are hired by Deloitte as W2 workers with a temporary employment agreement (option B).
Unfortunately for workers, big companies often confuse the rules for them, calling them all "contractors" and dumping them under the same rules. Workers who were hired under option A must be able to work for additional groups. Companies get in trouble with option A when they keep the person too long since they stop looking like independent contractors and start looking like regular employees. When companies lay off lots of "contractors", usually they are laying off people under option B or C, but then refuse to hire them again because that is a rule for those under option A.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
Or you could read the article that explained it. Wow....
I work for another company that has been doing this sort of thing for a long time. But instead of laying off employees and bringing on H1B's, they are bringing on recent college graduates that are also only H!B's and then making working conditions unbearable until the old timers here just leave out of frustration. There is such a high turn over rate here that we have all but stopped acknowledging when people leave. I am currently training 2 people and an expecting a third and I have to do this in addition to all other tasks that are assigned to me.
I miss the days when I could go to a first round in-person interview and get the job before walking out of the door. I am looking, but I am not having so much luck.
I think the problem is that many silicon Valley companies are employing these same sorts of strategies. Driving down wages by bringing in H1B's. Its like the management team reads in a business journal how all their competitors are doing this and they think that they have to do it too to keep up with the jones'. I think this is unethical and at worst, probably of questionable legality. theH1b program was designed to provide workers to supplement the workforce here because there weren't enough engineers to fill available positions. Now, the system is being used to replace engineers here with cheaper labor. This is not consistent with the intent of the provisions of H1b.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Oh! We didn't know that gun was loaded! Gee, whillickers, sorry about that!"
"We didn't think that part of the H1B law about hiring Americans FIRST really applied to us!
Sure. I will. I just so happen to enjoy reading the tech jobs ads. It's my pastime. Oh, btw, could I have the day off tomorrow, I have an interv... I mean I have to act like nothing happened.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
AFAIK, H-1B is considered dual-intent: the employer has the option to terminate the employee and pay for travel back to the holder's country; and the holder has the option to transfer to another employer (in a timely manner?) and/or apply for permanent residency. I don't think it's any easier to apply for permanent residency just because you hold an H-1B, but the point is, you can apply.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
with Disney's attitude towards their employees has an easy way to show their displeasure. Just don't go to buy any Disney theme parks or products. Sure it is hard to find things Disney doesn't have its fingers in but just stop going to their theme parks and stop going to their movies would be a good start.
I find it ironically sad how many people post "changing my mind on outsourcing" after they are let go due to outsourcing of their own jobs.
Not only was it read, taken seriously, and a wrong righted; but as studies has previously proved by a post from one of the only of a handful of people who used Google +.
I feel conflicted...On one hand, Disney is yet again, being a shitty company and I feel bad that all these employees are being put through the wringer. On the other hand, if you are gullible enough to take a job at a company like Disney, you kind of deserve what you get.
I have a suspicion that a lot of Disney employees are like people that get jobs in the AAA game industry: They think that because they love the product that is produced, the job and working conditions will somehow be good.
Open message to anyone working for or thinking about it Disney: Research the companies history before you take a job These are shitty, shitty people that are in charge of making all these lovable characters.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
That article needs to be updated with this H1-B situation.
I would do it myself, at least add a section with a few references and get it started, but every time I edit an article on Wikipedia my contributions are automatically reverted for some reason I cannot fathom. The Encyclopedia anyone can edit... Yeah right. I apparently need to be in some special club or something.
Love sees no species.
Yeah, Disney is making money hand-over-fist and it's all going to lazy people who don't work there (also known as "shareholders").
I sometimes imagine what would happen if there were a union big enough to call a national strike for all server-farms.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
While the RINOs are ramming TPP and Common Core (proselytizing Islam) down our throats, the other side of 'immigration' and Obamacare they are not telling you about .
McDonald's CEO signed the letter,
and Walt Disney Company? yep.
Oops! Coca Cola and US steel are on the list ...
If you're any working American citizen paying taxes ... ... 'you' will still have to make up the difference for Obamacare EXEMPT congress and congressional staff, EXEMPT white house staff, EXEMPT (certain) unions, EXEMPT ACORN types (by whatever name they have now), exempt Obama phonies and EXEMPT illegal invaders. ... exempt illegal invaders will have first preference for jobs:
If you're a black US citizen, or Asian, gay, a student, woman, a Latino US citizen (even you white idiot liberals) you'd better read this.
If your employer is on the list (below), you better read this. ... yep, ... why businesses are in such a panic to pass 'Illegal Invasion'. If they pass 'immigration', businesses won't have to pay into Obamacare because they layed off US citizens and hired amnestied, exempt immigrants and Muslim refugees and who in turn exempt the businesses, who do you think will be forced to make up the difference?
Google:
'Obamacare Loophole Provides Incentive For Employers To Hire Illegal Aliens Over US Citizens'
The CEO's involved in this remain out of the news while they are destroying our country through our 'so-called' representatives.
We need to expose each one of these traitors.
Here's the list, it's a long list too -
Google:
Cheesecake Factory, Hallmark, Disney, and Others Now Pushing ...
www.cis.org/ feere/ cheesecake-factory-hallmark-disney-and-others-now-pushing-amnesty
We need the names of the CEO’s that are engaging in this war on US citizens.
-Do you or do you know someone who works at one of these companies?
-Put this list on your bulletin board.
-Show this list when going out for lunch.
-Give this list to your buyers and sales reps.
- Check this list when planning a vacation or weekend trip.
-Pass copies of this list at local election campaigns.
Put futile party affiliations and self interests aside and ...
Vote OUT all RINOs and democrats like your job, wealth, health, privacy, your kids well being, our states rights, our county's sovereignty, our Constitution and your LIFE depends on it.
NOVEMBER 2016
And yet still another other side of amnesty they're not telling you about:
Not one campaigner has yet to speak the word: "Muslim Immigration Jihad" or 'Hijra'.
The vast majority of Americans have no idea how the USA is being over run and who soon will have majority vote and MSM is keeping it all quiet:
https://youtu.be/6PzT8vEvYPg
Check out new refugees in Detroit, Washington DC, Cedar Rapids, Paterson, Dearborn, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, etc., etc. and you're subsidizing them.
US citizens are forced to pay for this coup de 'etat against the US Constitution, Bill of Rights and our total submission to Islam Sharia. yep ... along with subsidizing them as they replace US citizen's jobs, housing, health benefits, food stamps and each will get an Obama phone after they're here?
Obama stash (our taxes).
Ever wonder why so many unscreened Muslim refugees are ...
www.barenakedislam.com/ 2015/ 05/ 20/ ever-wonder-why-so-many-unscreened-muslim-refugees-are-suddenly-flood ing-into-america/
May 20, 2015 ... Muslim Refugee Resettlement and the 'Hijra' (Muslim Immigration Jihad)
Now consider middle east Christian mass persecutions, atrocities and killings?? ... they aren't eligible to get refugee status and Obama stash? ... get it?
While the RINOs are ramming TPP and Common Core (proselytizing Islam) down our throats, the other side of 'immigration' and Obamacare they are not telling you about .
McDonald's CEO signed the letter,
and Walt Disney Company? yep.
Oops! Coca Cola and US steel are on the list ...
If you're any working American citizen paying taxes ... ... 'you' will still have to make up the difference for Obamacare EXEMPT congress and congressional staff, EXEMPT white house staff, EXEMPT (certain) unions, EXEMPT ACORN types (by whatever name they have now), exempt Obama phonies and EXEMPT illegal invaders. ... exempt illegal invaders will have first preference for jobs:
If you're a black US citizen, or Asian, gay, a student, woman, a Latino US citizen (even you white idiot liberals) you'd better read this.
If your employer is on the list (below), you better read this. ... yep, ... why businesses are in such a panic to pass 'Illegal Invasion'. If they pass 'immigration', businesses won't have to pay into Obamacare because they layed off US citizens and hired amnestied, exempt immigrants and Muslim refugees and who in turn exempt the businesses, who do you think will be forced to make up the difference?
Google:
'Obamacare Loophole Provides Incentive For Employers To Hire Illegal Aliens Over US Citizens'
The CEO's involved in this remain out of the news while they are destroying our country through our 'so-called' representatives.
Is it the same group listed below that is undermining American citizens by trying to get TPP passed?
We need to expose each one of these traitors.
Here's the list, it's a long list too -
Google:
Cheesecake Factory, Hallmark, Disney, and Others Now Pushing ...
www.cis.org/ feere/ cheesecake-factory-hallmark-disney-and-others-now-pushing-amnesty
We need the names of the CEO’s that are engaging in this war on US citizens.
-Do you or do you know someone who works at one of these companies?
-Put this list on your bulletin board.
-Show this list when going out for lunch.
-Give this list to your buyers and sales reps.
- Check this list when planning a vacation or weekend trip.
-Pass copies of this list at local election campaigns.
Put futile party affiliations and self interests aside and ...
Vote OUT all RINOs and democrats like your job, wealth, health, privacy, your kids well being, our states rights, our county's sovereignty, our Constitution and your LIFE depends on it.
NOVEMBER 2016
And yet still another other side of amnesty they're not telling you about:
Not one campaigner has yet to speak the word: "Muslim Immigration Jihad" or 'Hijra'.
The vast majority of Americans have no idea how the USA is being over run and who soon will have majority vote and MSM is keeping it all quiet:
https://youtu.be/6PzT8vEvYPg
Check out new refugees in Detroit, Washington DC, Cedar Rapids, Paterson, Dearborn, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, etc., etc. and you're subsidizing them.
US citizens are forced to pay for this coup de 'etat against the US Constitution, Bill of Rights and our total submission to Islam Sharia. yep ... along with subsidizing them as they replace US citizen's jobs, housing, health benefits, food stamps and each will get an Obama phone after they're here?
Obama stash (our taxes).
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS unscreened Muslim refugees (no Christian refugees allowed) are ALREADY HERE.
www.barenakedislam.com/ 2015/ 05/ 20/ ever-wonder-why-so-many-unscreened-muslim-refugees-are-suddenly-flood ing-into-america/
May 20, 2015 ... Muslim Refugee Resettlement and the 'Hijra' (Muslim Immigration Jihad)
Now consider middle east Christian mass persecutions, atrocities and killings?? ... they aren't eligible to get refugee status and Obama stash? ... get it?
" in a Google+ post."
Wow, just when you think the world isn't bad enough. The unemployed are now forced to use Google+ to post messages to the world.
Now they need to fire the ones who caused the would be layoffs .
They will simply change from a layoff model to an attrition replacement model, replacing US workers over time with H1Bs. Same net effect just a longer timeline. H1Bs need to be fixed and regulated properly.
People should postpone their Disney vacation in protest.
HP did the exact same thing, but rather than using H1B people here in the US, they just completely outsourced everything to Foxconn, Lite-on, etc. Many of us in the PC/software industry have been training replacements since the end of the 20th century. Interestingly enough, it's the small shops where our skills are still valued. I suspect that's because small shops are still dynamic environments where the ability to think outside of the box and make qualitative judgements on a daily basis is valued, as opposed to entrenched organizations that have well-documented tools and processes that anyone with sufficient reading comprehension skills can follow step-by-step and get some work done.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled outrage.
Another question: How much training did Disney provide to their domestic employees? The mega-corps practice on-demand employment then complain nobody's got the skill-set they want. But instead of training local people, the mega-corp can afford to import foreigners and then train them. There's only one practical reason to do this: To make employees disposable, to remove their rights and reduce their wages. Disney got caught trying to dispose of their legally-protected employees. Notice that disposable employees are never HR clerks, lawyers, mid-level managers, accountants. Certain knowledge skills are deemed universal and undifferentiated.
This disrespect of knowledge workers in the IT industry, who are mostly self-trained, is a nation-wide disease. I think the reason this affects support and development jobs is a matter of metrics: It's difficult to measure the indirect costs, opportunity costs, quality, accuracy and scheduling dependencies between coder (or help-desk) and the application (or problem resolution). Until these can be systematically calculated, software development will be an art not an engineered process. Likewise, managers will fixate on on monetary costs, not the completeness and correctness of the finished job.
What Disney will do instead is start trimming a little bit here and there and making it more difficult for current workers to stay. In the long run it will be the same result. This is just spin management.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy to see Disney criticized.
But tech companies like: IBM, Microsoft, and Facebook, are *far* worse H1B abusers than Disney.
And Indian contracting firms are probably a bigger H1B scammer than the US companies combined.
I guess everybody will figure that the problem has been solved now.
I don't think it's any easier to apply for permanent residency just because you hold an H-1B, but the point is, you can apply.
Although it technically might be easily apply for permanent residency, depending on your situation, the only realistic chance you have is if you have some "in" like an H-1B.
Depending on your personal situation, it is generally *much* easier to obtain permanent residency if you hold an H-1B visa. The generic option for most people is to get married to a US citizen or enter the green-card lottery (aka the diversity visa program). For example, if you are married already, or if you happen to be coming from a country that sources a large number US immigrants (say india or china), or don't happen to be world class at anything in demand, an H-1B is likely to be the only realistic option to get permanent residency status in your lifetime (other than maybe to have an anchor baby and wait until your kid turns 21 and can sponsor you for permanent residency).
"...we should consider it as if nothing had happened until further notice."
I will die before I take my friends or family to a Disney anything ever again.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
Disney actually DID fire a couple of hundred people. This is the second round at Disney ABC, where they changed their minds after getting caught misusing H1B visas to take jobs away from US workers.
My point was that some visas/work permits let you apply for permanent residency while you're in status (e.g., H-1B) and others require that you return to your home country first (e.g., J-1.)
(IANA immigration L)
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
The current management would have required with millions of dollars. It is not their problems anymore
Well of course. Industry couldn't use the program to displace US workers as long as the H-1 visa was still only for temporary workers. That is exactly why they got the temporary part of the H-1 visa removed.
As others have suggested, Disney Lame and the tragic Kingdom will do it, in ones and twos, small layoffs that look like attrition not a large aggressive effort to replace workers with cheaper labor. Or they will do it with a re-org and just cut, then claim worker shortages and bring in the H-1B's. Their is any number of scenarios to keep this slimy move by Disney under wraps. The Key word here is slimy, and since this has happened I and my family will not be patrons of Disney in any fashion. See how the House of Mouse likes taking it up the keyster !!!
It's also dangerous to the business, since getting rid of people who know what they're doing and replacing them with the cheapest you can find is going to have consequences.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
It was very definitely designed to drive down salaries by bringing back indentured servitude despite whatever sugar coating you may have been told it has.
Dealing with layoffs personally is difficult on many levels so in many cases it gets delegated to junior HR types who really have no idea what contribution their employees were making and do not have time to find out before deadline. So that idiot playing farmville all day instead of working gets to decide your fate.
Also there's the "modern" idea of hands-off management where a manager is apparently able to manage without having a clue what the core business of the org they are running does. Thus things like the CEO of an electricity generating company that gets driven all the way out to the power plant for meetings yet never sets foot in anything other than the admin building (has a chance to learn some basics about what the org does but does not bother to look). That idiot I'm using as an example made some choices that led to a city of one and a half million people being blacked out for a month, but there are plenty more that manage/mismanage with the same style.