That's what happened in Poland in 1990s when France Telecom took bought the local telco monopoly (Telekomunikacja Polska) from the Polish state. FT wanted to get rid of lots of relatively well-paid office workers (largely due to automation making them no longer necessary), but were unable to do so, as keeping employment was part of the sales contract. However, they were allowed to move people around the company, provided they still pay them the same salaries.

The FT's "solution" was to move hundreds (probably even thousands) of people into call centers and subject them to what today would definitely be recognized as mobbing. A family member went through that - she said that, whoever could quit quickly did, and people who had no alternatives stayed on the job largely only thanks to tranquilizers and other psych meds.