There is a concept of internal layoff to invent, where a part of the workforce as to apply to a different teams, being fired from the previous one and hire by the next one.

For the anecdote, i know someone that was let go by IBM and hire by RedHat the same month two years ago.

“1 or 2 years?? Are you planning on living for ever??? That’s like 4 to 8 quarters!”

These companies still have more employees than just before the pandemic.