> I call it "vanity hiring".
It already has a name; empire building
Re:The third wave of open source migration
by cookiecaper on Monday April 27, 2020 @12:54PM
(#22997576)
I see "empire building" as a larger campaign. In some cases, vanity hiring is really just vanity hiring, motivated by noting more than the impulse not to let your peer's headcount pull significantly ahead of your own.
I think you could argue it already has a more general name; individual self interest. The peak headcount you’ve managed or directred has a pretty direct impact on the level of manigeiral roles you are in contention for.
The sad thing is that you often have to play the game defensively -- I've seen semi-decent organizations end up consumed by the 80% overweight departments because bigger departments end up with all the advantages just as a function of their size, even if they're almost completely worthless. Have to keep pace with the useless hiring just so they can't say "well it's our smallest group, only 5 guys", etc.