Reply #5: It depends...

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

Either nobody wanted the job, but they had to fill it anyway, or the company decided that the money spend on training in people skills could be better suited to bonus checks.
(That acuallt happened at my place)

The restuarant I work at has a similar problem. The kithcen manager has few people skills. He neglects his duties, (filling out the schedule, disciplining people who deserve it, and covering shifts for sick workers,) and whenever you go to him with a problem, his typical response is "what am I supposed to do about it?"
Meanwhile, he's cut the hours of nearly all the morning people, the kitchen is filthy becasue he doesn't enforce any cleaning rules on a daily basis, (usually only when the health inspector or corporate inspector or owner is coming.) and when you come to him with suggestions to make the kitchen a better environment, he throws the idea aside. The reason he does that is because it wasn't his idea.
With all the labor cuts (we're busier than ever) and the positions unfilled, he and the other managers still manage to get their bonus checks every three months.

The reason restuarants do that could be because Americans are continuing to eat out more than ever. They know that the people will eat there, (unless the place is really, really crappy, and that few of them will complain. As long as the money keeps rolling in, the corporation that owns the restuarant will not do anything. They just want to see profits.