[vvrm]

The problem with over-hiring is not that there's a lot of people doing nothing. The problem is that there's a lot of people who need to do something to write in their annual reviews. Since there's only so many useful things to do, people start doing non-useful things e.g. over-engineering simple things. These non-useful things then slow down the development of useful things by

  1. Creating needless technical complexity.
  2. Creating needless compatibility issues.
  3. Distracting the focus.

So over-hiring isn't just a waste of money (which G has plenty of), it is also a waste of time (which G can't afford with competitors, like ChatGPT, breathing down it's neck).

Hiring 2X more people is not going to result in 2X more value creation, but laying off half the staff is not going to 2X the productivity either.

[freefaler]

It's not only in companies, the same logic works for any bureaucracies. Examples such as overregulation in EU or large universities bodes well for this argument.