Companies dropping employees to bolster the bottom line is something we'll just have to learn to live with. I think they got the idea from an episode of the Addams Family, where Gomez had bought life insurance and the agent that sold him the policy was told to go back and get it nullified. When the agent got to the house he discovered Gomez had taken up skydiving. It seems Gomez had a theory that if every time he jumped he used a slightly smaller chute eventually he could ween himself off them completely and just jump without one. Amazing what one can learn from classic television.