The full quote: "... the product teams that are left after pruning should try to keep the most experienced employees, lay off the junior ones, and return manag

The full quote: "... the product teams that are left after pruning should try to keep the most experienced employees, lay off the junior ones, and return managers to individual contributor positions where possible. Experienced employees have been through this before, make better judgement calls under stress, and communicate better." So writes the experienced employee. Adding to the parent comment, experienced employees also may have vested interests and cognitive inertia based on the current situation, the way things have been done until now. If you want new growth, new perspective, new ideas, new energy, new blood can help. They don't know that 'back when Eddie was here, we did it this way ...' and they don't care. The OP also writes, managers start to hoard ... and play politics to preserve their products. That applies to the experienced employees too.