[vkou]

> Why is it hard to fire employees?

Because when you are billions-of-dollars profitable, and you go ahead and fire a lot of people, it tanks morale, and good performers start looking for the door. (Note: This does not hold in the middle of a recession. We aren't in the middle of a recession, though.)

Because a company could be just as successful without XY% of its workforce, but nobody can correctly identify which XY%. (This one still holds in the middle of a recession.)

Because a lot of that XY% would be more productive, if they were instructed to do something that's more useful to the bottom line.