The names we have been able to know by now would indicate that theory to be wrong - or Microsoft has a warped idea of what constitutes as a low-performer.
Of the names I know, some were involved in a number of failed projects, e.g. a foldable Windows phone. Perhaps unlucky for them, perhaps low performance.
What's the definition of low performer?
The chief people officer and a couple interns who prepared the list know… so it’ll be something like ‘didn’t get a bonus for X years’
"someone you don't want around anymore"
People with “Insufficient results” also known in other places as PIP
People that don’t work
Methinks this is a bit too harsh for Hacker News.
If everyone worked all day, this place would be deserted.
So the windows team?
Reminds me of a glorious post on HN where someone happily blogged about how he wrote some code to tell him who to fire, the answer was him, which meant the code wasn’t quite right. So he picked some people instead. I live for those posts.