It is worth noting that when Jack Welch arrived at GE he was dealing with a bloated company heading towards bankruptcy because it had way too much overhead. Fi

It is worth noting that when Jack Welch arrived at GE he was dealing with a bloated company heading towards bankruptcy because it had way too much overhead. Firing the bottom 10% each year was harsh medicine, but it was what GE needed at the time. The fault is not in the medicine supplied. It is that his imitators supplied the same medicine to other companies in other circumstances. What is the fallout? Jack Welch was a big part of the breaking of the social contract that used to be part of American business. It took decades, but now American workers have accepted that a job is not "until death do us part" and have also given up on their side of the same contract. And the result is a very different relationship between corporate America and their workers.