Promotion

[denise]

John is a young man working for a big company. He is lazy, poorly motivated, and inefficient. Yet he is the first person in his department to be promoted. Why?

[denise]

Clue: The company knows exactly what John is like.

[denise]

Clue: Promoting John is part of a clever plan.

[denise]

They promote him very publicly

[denise]

Answer: John was promoted very publicly.  He was immediately headhunted by a rival firm, and lured away with a salary he could not resist.  The original company wanted to fire him, but that would have been costly.  They knew that their rivals were desperate to recruit one of their top people.  This way, they got rid of him and saddled their rivals with a dud.