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They usually couch it in weasel words such as "we have no plans to conduct layoffs at this time" rather than an outright lie.

That is an outright lie if they do have plans for layoffs.

"at this time" just needs to refer to when the layoffs are happening rather than the existence of a plan.

No, that is also lying.

Oh no, they have a plan to create a plan for layoffs, but as of right now there is no plan to layoff employees.

More realistically, "We don't have a plan for laying off employees at this time. Our plan is for laying off employees next month."