Hacker News

One time I made a camera system that would pass/fail sort stuff on an automated production line. As soon as I finished the first draft version of it, before I could even test it, management laid off six of the seven inspectors. Needless to say our production speed was absolutely crippled while the new hire replacements tried to get up to speed.

When I left two years later, the system still wasn’t operational because there was no objective fail threshold they could meet reliably, but that didn’t stop them from jumping the gun and firing inspectors every six months or so and slowing everything down.

I’m sure some asshole got a bonus each time.