[ElectricSpoon]

> Mass layoffs give you the opportunity to quickly purge poor performers

That would be true for poor performing projects. Try a bunch of projects; many don't take off; cut the chaff all at once.

What I've seen in various companies were cuts of all kinds of employees, regardless of their individual performance. Large cuts weren't about the employees but about the projects or teams. I've also lived through a cut which was basically reducing headcount across all teams. Cutting 11k employees isn't a micro-management thing; individual performers get hit all the same.

The fallback of some such cuts was that it took years to later re-acquire competent employees, especially since they were offering work conditions average for the market.

TLDR don't stay too long on projects or teams which aren't lucrative for the company, unless they are fun and you don't mind getting ejected from the company when cut comes.