I was part of a layoff this year. I was the highest performing member of the team — and awarded as such — but my skip level VP didn’t like me. So I’m gone. It was similar across the board.. lots of my coworkers, many of whom were good at their jobs, were selected-out not based on performance either.

So yeah, sometimes you can cut the chaff this way, and sometimes it’s just a way for those in power to consolidate their crews. And sure… this is technically a management right, but some who were retained were kept because they were abusable more than they were useful.