From the comments: "Nurturing mediocrity" is exactly what my old company was doing. In 2018 they announced there would be staff reductions but no layoffs. They would cut staff through natural turnover. As people leave, they just wouldn't backfill. On their management reports, all staff was equally good. But reality was the mediocre employees know they have a good thing going while the great ones see it's going to get bad and start looking around. Management said they wanted to avoid the hurt feelings of layoffs which can happen even among those who are kept. But they lost an opportunity to cut mediocre staff and created years of discontent among all employees. There is a certain class of manager (all too common) that will assume something does not exist if you can’t see it on a management report or a balance sheet. Innovative engineers in particular shun that type of thinking, and that’s why that line of thought drives them away. That type of manager will always nurture mediocrity as a result.