[thrownaway]

Well-said. I worked at a place that had layoffs awhile back and it was a real bummer, in part because of the layoffs, but also because management lied about the reasons for them and the health of the company at the subsequent all-hands. Once management switches to "lie openly and often" mode all the interpersonal behavior incentives change. Like you said, it becomes reasonable to be skeptical and distrustful...