Suppose his coworkers are all working unreasonably long hours (whether out of fear, or poor work-life balance, or whatever), and he’s “only” working 40-45 hours

Suppose his coworkers are all working unreasonably long hours (whether out of fear, or poor work-life balance, or whatever), and he’s “only” working 40-45 hours a week. His output could be excellent, but he’d still be on the chopping block, no? I don’t think him being chosen to receive the boot necessarily means his performance was poor. I mean, maybe it was, but from the outside I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion.