This is not surprising to anybody that ever worked at a sufficiently large organization. Once you get a large number of employees, then layer in HR, legal, compliance, etc. considerations it creates quite a lot of opportunities for low performers to get in the door and never leave.
Convenient that they only worry about this during recessions, what purpose would management have to ignore these problems until now? It's a sleight-of-hand to shift blame come earnings time and give management something to do to 'fix the problem' (that their mismanagement created) they can point to, nothing more.
Yes. I think that has to do with the culture of budgetary cycles and planning. It makes it very unlikely that a leader would want to jettison dead weight during “the good times” since they might lose the budget if the role is not backfilled quickly.
