It's an ugly business and there's little to do to make it not ugly, at best all you can be is as human and compassionate as possible. In an ideal world us peon

It's an ugly business and there's little to do to make it not ugly, at best all you can be is as human and compassionate as possible. In an ideal world us peons would like to think the C-suite saw it all coming and didn't hire whatever people in the first place. Depending on the work culture it can be devastating to culture and morale - at goldman it's harmless (they do it every year) but in collaborative environments it can drive the collaborative kind souls to seek safer harbor and embolden the narcissists by way of demonstrably outperforming that other guy, which taken together can completely annihilate a previously halcyon culture. If it's a teachable moment, fine, but teachable moments at the expense of livelihoods sucks. The layoffs will continue until morale improves.