[robotcapital]

> Yup; any department with money in their budget left over at the end of the budget period will see their budget reduced, even if they need it.

Anecdote here. I've been a senior manager at small, medium, and large (ie FAANG) tech companies over the past 20 years and I've never run into this. Teams make a case for the budgets they need and those are approved (or not) based on the finance team's overall guidance and the return on investment. I'd be curious if others have have actually seen this "use it or lose it" mentality for budgets in practice.

> And (I'm theorizing here, I know little of management layers) I'm confident that a manager's wage is a percentage of a department's budget. Therefore, it's in their interest to use up and ask for more budget constantly.

Again, not my experience. Like you say, this would create perverse incentives which would quickly become apparent to a company's overall finances.

I don't doubt these sorts of policy mistakes have happened at other companies in the past, but I'm doubtful that they're pervasive, or even common, in the tech industry.