Agencies hire by credentials but cut by rules unrelated to effectiveness

Evidence

The important point is that when public bureaucracies are growing, jobs usually are created in response to perceived needs, and workers are hired with reference to credentials and apparent qualifications. But when they are forced to shrink, public bureaucracies rarely remove workers in response to decisions concerning the most effective utilization of reduced available resources. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1283

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The asymmetry — expansion justified by needs, contraction by non-service rules — is a compact statement of how administrative rationality reverses direction under scarcity, hollowing out the premise of merit-based staffing.
• XREF: Echoes the broader organizational finding that retrenchment decisions are decoupled from the criteria used for growth.