I worked for a company that laid off roughly ~10% of their employees. The company was steadily becoming less profitable, and as a young company they'd been too nice and kept on and gave more chances to underperforming employees than most other companies would. Finally, they had to make the make the hard call.
They did it one by one, and it took roughly a full day to get through everyone. The whole company was on pins and needles- even those who were doing well couldn't think about anything other than wonder whose names and faces they wouldn't be seeing around the office anymore.
As an individual, I empathize with the emotional difficulty of an impersonal mass layoff. However, having seen the flip side, it's a whole lot worse to spend 8 hours wondering when the hammer is going to drop on you. Ultimately, it's better to get it over with quickly, imho.