Hell, I've had and have heard of service-industry level jobs doing this to people for years.

One of my first jobs was as a waiter. Showed up one day to check the schedule and couldn't find my name on any of the shifts. Management never told anyone that they were cutting staff, they would just stop schedule you and you were just supposed take the hint and move on. When I confronted them on it they were surprised that I hadn't just "gotten the hint."

And the practice must be rather wide spread. I've heard similar stories, even from corporate chains, were workers are just laid off not by a discussion with their manager but by just not being scheduled.

So I can hardly find employees doing unsympathetic.