I would much rather a startup do an announced layoff than the more common thing, which is to write phony PIPs and make it look like performance-based firings. A layoff, even when it's the right thing, is an admission of a business problem and a signal that the company won't be hiring for a while. But evil startups use "silent layoffs" to save their image ("we've never had a layoff") at the expense of those let go.
I do wonder what kind of backstory there was if they were afraid of people trashing the office. Usually people are pretty civilized when they are laid off-- especially if there's a severance, which would be jeopardized by bad behavior (if you vandalize the office, you get zero because the "severance" is charges not being pressed). Being laid off sucks, but it's not worth retaliating.
Constant re-orgs in small companies, for what it's worth, don't seem to be a new thing either.
Get a pack of such people with "little to lose" and otherwise reasonable people may be unreasonable in these circumstances.
There's likely more but that's all that counts. I hate the mentality. Unless you're hiring 16 yr olds at McDonald's, do you really expect riots from your professional workforce? They're better off being nowhere around such a shitty place. Hopefully none of this comes as an added ding to a recommendation "Oh you were one of those employees that they were afraid of? Maybe you'll shiv me in my sleep! Noez!!" yawn. I sense nothing but assholes from this place because none of this feels positive in any way. How not to fire someone right here.
It doesn't say nice things about the company if they thought laying off a whole office via a conference call was a good idea to start with.
Thank goodness I declined that offer!