Yes, but the best people typically know their worth and leave in 2-3 years anyways, downsize or not. What’s important during a layoff is keeping the company running. How deep can you cut without affecting day-to-day operations?
You don’t need 10x experts to keep legacy systems running for 6 months. Good people leaving is a calculate risk that managers probably considered.
Not sure I agree. My anecdotal first hand experience is that it's irrespective of talent or work ethic.
Nope. People with options leave first. Who has options? The best people. It's called the deadsea effect - look it up.
Makes sense in theory, doesn't always seem to in practice.
it's one of those things where when you notice it it's already too late.
It’s never about the quality of people. Past a certain size, it’s all about politics and appearances, actual performance or quality doesn’t matter. This kind of abuse self selects for docile, “flexible” employees who won’t rock the boat, won’t complain about unpaid overtime, and will take the abuse without causing too much trouble. And that’s a perfect strategy because only this kind of people stay at that kind of companies in the long run.