[teraflop]

This is sarcasm, right?

If not: in general, in the US, it's perfectly legal for a company to just arbitrarily decide they need to fire N people, and arbitrarily choose a particular person to fire meet that "quota". This is true regardless of how many layers of managers are involved, or what bullshit PIP hoops are jumped through.

There would only be a legal issue if the worker was subject to a bona-fife employment contract (quite rare) or if they were discriminated against on the basis of a legally protected characteristic. Just being the least senior member of a team is not legally protected.

[MarkMarine]

There are legal requirements around doing layoffs. A quota of PIPs is a stealth layoff. I’d say OP has a point.

[JohnFen]

> if the worker was subject to a bona-fife employment contract (quite rare)

It's funny -- I've never heard that these were rare except in comments on HN, and with every job I've had in the industry, I've had a real employment contract (along with all of the devs I personally know well enough to know that about them.)

Is this "employment contracts are rare" thing a SV norm, perhaps?

[cajunboi34213]

Not sarcastic but you're probably right in terms of no real legal course. But here's the thing, you're getting fired anyway. Depending on company size, they may give you something nominal just so you sign a non-disclosure and don't create bad PR for them.