 The Great Depression of the 1930s presented an unprecedented economic challenge, and Watson met the challenge head-on, continuing to invest in people, manufacturing, and technological innovation despite the difficult economic times.Rather than reduce staff, he hired additional employees in support of President Franklin Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration plan – not just salesmen, which he joked that he had a lifelong weakness for, but engineers too.Watson not only kept his workforce employed, but he also increased their benefits.