I'm just guessing that you haven't yet worked in a large corporation yet, or else you'd have met the "programmer that can't program", or the "network engineer t

I'm just guessing that you haven't yet worked in a large corporation yet, or else you'd have met the "programmer that can't program", or the "network engineer that can't network", or the "system administrator that can't sysadmin", or any number of IT professionals that are completely, and totally incapable of doing any meaningful work. Large corporations are so risk-averse that they are usually afraid to fire people, even when they can't do their jobs. Also, the ones that stick around have gotten so good at working the political system and getting others to do their work that they can't fire them, because they will just say "you didn't ask me to do it in writing", or any number of other excuses why they didn't do their job. Not to mention, let's say you do want to fire a programmer who can't program - you can't just fire them, they have to be given a verbal warning first, then a written warning, it needs to be documented with HR, then they are put on a 90 day probationary period, or "improvement plan." They claim they don't have enough training for the job, so then they need to be retrained, at additional expense. The other factor is that some managers like to keep 10-20% dead weight around because it pads their department. Everyone is fighting for more direct reports; apparently whoever has the most employees wins some kind of management contest. So, they keep 10-20% slackers on staff, knowing that if layoffs come around, they can cut the dead weight and keep the good programmers. It's frankly amazing that anything gets done at all in a large corporation.