> "In late November, this former employee received his annual performance review, which he provided to The New York Times. His supervisor, who was not aware the man was scheduled for layoff, wrote that because of his superior skills and “outstanding” work, he had saved the company thousands of dollars. The supervisor added that he was looking forward to another highly productive year of having the employee on the team. The employee got a raise. His severance pay had to be recalculated to include it."

That's absolutely horrible. Not only is it a case of left hand not talking to right hand, it almost seems cruel to review someone in the position of being laid off so highly that it warrants a raise. Nobody stopped to consider "maybe we should keep this employee around?" It's disheartening.