A layoff is an elimination of a position often because of economic issues. After the layoff is done, that position is gone. Letting someone go because of perf

A layoff is an elimination of a position often because of economic issues. After the layoff is done, that position is gone. Letting someone go because of performance doesn't remove the position and it can be filled again. If the company is realizing that there are people who are just coasting and not doing work and that they're not getting fired previously because it really is a pain and paperwork to fire someone and they want to let those low performers go but not eliminate the position, this is the way to go about it. Microsoft's old stack rank wasn't a layoff - it was a cold hearted "people who aren't preforming get let go." Stripe is recognizing that they've got people coasting and not contributing at the expected level. Somewhere an estimate was made that the lowest performing staff based on manager ratings aren't matching the actual performance. If someone is let go for performance (severance or no - that isn't part of the calculation), that position remains and can be filled again. If it was a layoff, then that position would be eliminated after the person was laid off.