I read every bit of that and it was worth it. Good read, though I'm actually interested if there are a lot of cases like this in the US, are there really people who can be forgotten in the corporate world?
As someone that currently works for a Fortune 50 organization and has worked for other Fortune 100 companies. I can say that it definitely happens. What is more likely to occur though is that someone will have a job that everyone is aware of but has very little to do. Many positions have tasks that come in fits and starts, meaning that the employee will be doing next to nothing until quarter end financials are due etc. these types of jobs are in abundance. A huge irony is that organizations will have positions that are created to help increase efficiency and study job behaviors/effectiveness within different departments. The irony is that these positions are often the ones with employees doing the least amount of actual work. The reality is that most people will do as little as they need to do in order to keep or sustain their job. It's very rare to find an employee that will go above and beyond what is expected of them. Most people will gladly hide in a corner and receive their 40 K a year plus benefits.
The post on YCombinator had more than 1 similar story, and hey, it's happens often enough that there are services to audit a company and find ghost employees.
This is my new favorite saying!In the end, I realized I was rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic