> the higherups said repeatedly it's not based on performance. They didn't elaborate on the methodology at all.
Ours said the same thing. PIPs get axed on every round, but our last one was heavy on employees over the age of 50 ("long-time employees and high performing").
This isn't the sort of thing anyone ever admits what it is, only deny what it isn't.
Quite naïve to assume this. Speaking to the most recent round of tech layoffs at my workplace, the higherups said repeatedly it's not based on performance. They didn't elaborate on the methodology at all. We had people who had just been promoted get fired, and we had people who were long-time employees and high performing get fired.