Pretty strong words here. Do you have any data to back this up or is it just opinion. I’ve from the EU and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen this actually happen. And even then it’s usually in banking but I presume a HN post is about tech.
Here in France, there's an up to six months "trial" period during which either party can terminate the employment for any reason and without notice. In case of a downturn, it's convenient to lay these people off.
Had this happen to me once, when I joined a company that, as it turned out, had to undergo some "restructuring" [0]. Three months in, my boss told me they weren't going to keep me, nor anyone else on their trial period. They were cool about it though, and told me I could stay until I found a replacement (or the full six months) and they even introduced me to a recruiter who did a pretty good job. In the end, I moved on to a much better position two weeks later, so all in all, and to GP's point, it was a good thing.
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[0] Things did get quite bad. As I found out later from an ex-colleague, many people had left; so this wasn't just a disguised way of kicking me out.
Did you expect me to list dozens of other companies?