One would think that the "good ones" would be held, but not always. The good ones also demand the highest levels of compensation and collateral benefits. During downturns if a business is desperate enough to start slashing staff, the corporate axe looks heavily at the bottom line, and not other merits, especially when the future is unsure.
Often, the most senior, hence most experienced and most mature, individuals are the first ones who are invited to take an "early out," not the last.
Likewise, during corporate outsourcing deals (remember those? we may see a resurgence in the popularity of those megadeals, soon.. there are many talks being held now), when the enterprise decides to sell its assets and contract to an OS firm in return for lease-back over ten years and an infusion of cash, they often hand over their most experienced (read: expensive) staff, as well, who may, or may not, be used by the OS firm to service the principal [who let them go] during the ensuing years of the outsource contract.
Which makes such things as institutional knowledge transfer and information management difficult to achieve. |
