Awful, but a lot less awful than canceling the offers after the moves. I don't think this kind of thing is going to change anytime soon as long as corporate Am

Awful, but a lot less awful than canceling the offers after the moves. I don't think this kind of thing is going to change anytime soon as long as corporate America works the way it does today. - Budget cuts, layoffs, hiring freezes, etc. are always going to be held closely by the C-level / senior execs. For reasons good and bad ("we don't want to kill morale until we have to," "what if we did X, Y, or Z instead?" "if layoffs leak, the wrong people will start looking for new jobs...") that information isn't distributed until last-minute or you see the effects but don't know why. - The other folks are busy trying to hire and get people in the door before the door slams shut. They don't know the CFO is going to say "no more hiring, withdraw offers" until it happens. - Given the size of these organizations someone is always three weeks out from starting a job unless there's already a freeze in place. If companies weren't obligated to try to make profits at all costs rather than having a longer-term view of the world -- if they didn't have to worry about getting sued for doing the humane thing instead of the profitable one -- then more companies might be willing to honor those offers and eat profits a few quarters in order to do right by their employees.