I visit the NYC Union Square and Hudson Yards offices regularly for dinner, and even the Seattle Westlake and MPK ones whenever I’m visiting. The mood there is much much better post layoffs. Possibly even better than it was pre COVID.

It sounds like a meme that a big company might want to have internally, if they were trying to both reduce regretted/uncontrolled attrition, while also lighting a fire under people who the company thinks are complacent.

But the company would not say that publicly (nor want employees to say that too loudly), because that would be a big liability, defaming tens of thousands of people while they are job-hunting. Also, a jerk move.

Regardless, I'd normally expect any big company layoffs to likely include people that the company or some layer of management has wanted to get rid of (for various reasons, not all the fault of the employee). But layoffs will also hit people based on what project they're on, what department, what role, and simply because their manager was given a target number to reduce.

I also know of multiple high-performers who knew/assumed layoffs were coming, and already wanted to leave, so quietly put in a word with a trusted manager/exec, that they would like a severance package when the time comes. (And then the manager could keep another person or two they would've had to reduce otherwise.)