Yeah, you initiate significant layoffs in any department, especially in a hot market like this one, for any reason, and you can expect most of your real talent

Yeah, you initiate significant layoffs in any department, especially in a hot market like this one, for any reason, and you can expect most of your real talent you kept to start looking elsewhere and start resigning, which will lead to more people looking and leaving, which leads to more people looking and leaving, until you've lost most of your good employees. I've seen exactly this happen on a couple of occasions (and stupidly stayed longer than I should have myself).