I was a direct employee for a company that rhymes with Hell. During my 5 years there, about half of my team consisted of contract workers on a continuing rotation. These were not telecommuters. By keeping only half staff direct, continuity was maintained, and by rotation of contract workers, benefit costs stayed low. Once a contract was up, the contractor would be shifted to a "sister" company until that contract ended. Rinse and repeat. There are people who have worked years this way without benefits.

Breaking news - large bureaucracy has psychopathic narcissist climber as mid level boss - film at eleven tonight

I recently started a new job where hordes of people are doing the same job. A horde of people who all do the same work. I was able to automate 60% in less than a month, and I shared the information. My boss is happy I'm doing well but doesn't care how I do it. None of my co-workers want to learn a new process. At this point, I've just about turned my role into a relatively short script of nested if statements. Never overestimate large organizations. Bureaucracies are filled with bosses that don't care about anything outside their job description.