> The idea that Google would struggle as hard as it did to meet its aggressive hiring goals over the last few years, then axe strong engineers just to make othe

> The idea that Google would struggle as hard as it did to meet its aggressive hiring goals over the last few years, then axe strong engineers just to make others scared, really stretches my credulity. A bit of a morbid counter-example: does one worry about "strong T-cells" when undergoing chemo, or strong muscle fibers during a limb amputation? The assumption that the C-Suite inherently cares about individual engineers during layoffs seems like a slight case of main character syndrome. If your department is being excised, others departments are downsizing, and the company as a whole is not hiring for your role, nothing can save you. Layoffs are not perfectly planned and executed with surgical precision[1], they are messy and approximate. 1. I realize the irony of using "surgical precision" after my earlier counter-example of the imprecision of amputations.