And an interpretation more cynical than that: The manager who hired them can either a) fire them, admitting they made a mistake, and taking a headcount and bud

And an interpretation more cynical than that: The manager who hired them can either a) fire them, admitting they made a mistake, and taking a headcount and budget reduction; or b) promote them, congratulating themselves for the successful hire and increasing the budget. Nobody gets promoted to stop doing damage, they get fired. Contrary to popular belief, it's not difficult to fire people, less so incompetent people.