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A firm operating in a deterministic and continuous-time context uses a Cobb-Douglas technology with diminishing returns and faces the complex adjustment costs of its factors. On the one hand, a proportional cost of hiring applies to the irreversible labor factor. On the other hand, investing requires a fixed cost that is proportional to the firm’s workforce. The firm then determines its hiring and investment policy, which maximizes the discounted value of its cash flows. The combination of fixed and variable costs involves a non-trivial cycle of factor adjustment, in which there is a continuous hiring episode, followed by a hiring freeze, and then a simultaneous spike in investment and hiring. The article proposes a numerical assessment of the effects of the size of the fixed cost on the life cycle of the firm. JEL codes: C61, D92, E22, E24