Let's say you're perfectly happy with your team of 9, but you have to fire 10% of people every year. It doesn't matter who you hire for that 10th spot. It does

Let's say you're perfectly happy with your team of 9, but you have to fire 10% of people every year. It doesn't matter who you hire for that 10th spot. It doesn't matter who makes the decision. You're getting a 10th person, of any caliber, to get rid of them. You'll make open recs and add more people to the team when you don't need more people, just so you can keep your staff. As a hiring engineer, this is exactly the sort of optimization I would make if I were compelled to terminate a portion of my team regularly (really, as a principal, I'd just tell whoever was making the rule to go to hell). We'd constantly be overstaffed so I can let someone go without it hurting my team.