Tom S. wrote:

Payroll is where the money is.

And headcount is what gives unions and executives POWER.

This is very important. I actually spent some time working for AT&T
post-breakup. We were putting into place automation, as it happens, within
various divisions of the company.

Managers often resisted this for the "headcount" reason. In fact, one came
out and stated quite clearly, in one meeting, that he'd do everything he
could to cause our project to fail if it threatened to reduce his staffing
levels in any way.

On the other hand, on my exit interview I was told a story by the area
whatchamacallit. He told me of a time when he built a phone (this was
actually while at some company that AT&T later bought). He chose to use
internal components, priced in dollars, rather than TI components, priced
in pennies. That was because it was his job to promote "the company".

Of course, his phone was never released as it couldn't compete.

Weird place, with a lot of strange ideas of what is good or bad.

- Andrew