Ever notice the company touts our people as our most important asset. But they don’t mean you as an individual. You are no different than any other asset that needs to be managed and controlled. One of the goals of management is to commoditization and make transportable as many positions as possible. That means pay the minimum and move to other regions as needed if the cost for talent goes up.
All companies are like this but it now more obvious when a workforce shrinks and a company entrenches. Experienced hires are more familiar with this than people that have spent their career at The Company.