[onion2k]

In the past, HNers have mentioned that if you admit you're going to lay people off, then your best performers will leave. Is that true?

Any kind of layoffs will cause your best performers to leave regardless of whether you tell people ahead of time. It's a strong signal that the company is in survival mode instead of growth mode, which at least means raises and bonuses are in doubt and at worst means the company is going under soon. It's better to accept that you're going to lose more people than you plan for and deal with the fallout as best you can.

[capableweb]

Another way of going through it, is to share that you might have to do layoffs, watch as people leave and enough people might leave so you don't have to do layoffs in the end. If enough people don't leave, go ahead with layoff. It's both transparent and honest, no lies required.

[dougSF70]

Except, weaker performers will stick around for severance and top performers will leave. If sufficient above average performers leave to avoid a layoff you are left with a weaker team. In this instance company doesnt get to chose, which it might want to. Best idea is not to provide reassurance if you cant back it up. In which case, say nothing.

[SkyPuncher]

The better performers who want to leave will leave regardless of when the layoff is communicated.