I didn't read "cut the bottom 2-5% of the company for non-excellence" to mean they used a hard limit. It could just be an approximation of the number of "under

I didn't read "cut the bottom 2-5% of the company for non-excellence" to mean they used a hard limit. It could just be an approximation of the number of "under performers" at the company. And because he said "non-excellence" was the reason, that tells me that they weren't perfectly fine employees (by the company's standards). But it's probably best to wait for an official announcement with more details before criticizing/defending them too much.