[rakhodorkovsky]

In Germany it's common for larger, well performing companies to retire older, less productive employees by way of 'Abfindungsprogramm' - programs that offer these employees generous monetary compensation (up to ~2-5 annual salary) in exchange for them retiring early. I know of four people who took such an offer.

[Glawen]

And I never understood why a company would do that

[joelbluminator]

I believe it's cost effective, firing these people is usually very hard legally.