Sorry, I think you may have misunderstood me. If a company has 10 developers and needs to cut down to 7, then the folks who have actively been interviewing in

Sorry, I think you may have misunderstood me. If a company has 10 developers and needs to cut down to 7, then the folks who have actively been interviewing in the near past are going to be considered more of a risk, especially by HR, who are likely to be making the list. Hiring is an expensive endeavor, so if HR sees someone as a risk and they need to cut positions, you can bet that they're going to see it as a better thing to let employees who have a risk factor to them go than others who don't (on paper that is, no-one can know what's going to happen tomorrow). They definitely don't want to cut the staff down and then have to go into a hiring stage soon after, because someone who was getting itchy feet decided to walk with another offer anyway. This isn't about targeting people just because they want more money/fairer pay/more holiday/bonuses. It's just about how companies behave.