How do large companies typically decide who gets laid off? Do they set a target, then pass it down proportionately throughout the org tree? Do they often chop specific areas entirely and leave others unaffected? A mix of both? Something else?
In the (only) organization level layoff I saw, someone stuck a pin in an org chart at a pretty high level. Everybody (and I mean everybody) in the tree underneath that point lost their job. Longtime employees at that company were in total shock that day. This was a layoff of a couple thousand employees.
I also saw a salary-based layoff happen. In that one, a number of software engineers in a division making over $X were let go in a cost-saving maneuver. Macroeconomic conditions continued to decline and a few months later, most early tenure (say 3-4 years or less) were basically let go.
I was new hire at the org-level layoff place I mentioned. New hires were exempted from the "resource action." Over the next 6 years that I was there, there were periodic layoffs but these were mostly targeted at folks judged as not doing particularly well or in positions that simply weren't needed anymore.