Sure. But then why keep them around for up to a year and fire them in bulk? The moment to get rid of a bad employee is as soon as you notice you have a bad employee.

The distribution of noticing problems should be pretty much random, so concentrating the firings in a once-a-year block means a high tolerance for keeping bad employees around. That, or they got rid of these people for reasons not really related to performance.

An unannounced layoff, though?

> Workers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals from the company. Employees said the firings have lowered morale through many departments.