Ok, ok. This thread contains a lot of opinion which means some is misinformation.
I can tell you unequivocally that there were never any “let’s make this random as possible” discussions.
Sometimes performance is contextual so working with a person on cross functional team you saw a slice of their performance it may have been great where as perhaps the person was having lower performance in other aspects of their job that was not visible to you.
Generally low performance is the first thing that is cut - GM did this first this time - which felt awful for sure but also reduced the number of cuts required.
VSP the package they offered this time is MUCH STRONGER than packages offered in 2019. This will hopefully encourage more people to take it.
Yes the company has to be careful so it does not seem like age discrimination but logically if someone was planning to retire this year or early next, they just received a pretty good gift that may enable them to have a bonus year off.
The package also could be beneficial for high performers that want to pivot as they are marketable within the job market and now have a little time to explore other opportunities or for those that want to pivot completely into a new career.
So we had low performer layoffs and we had VSP what happens next?
If we have enough exits between the performance layoffs and the VSP likely some job restructuring will be required and everyone moves on from there.
If there isn’t enough exits like in previous years we go to involuntary- but we now how more performance discussions.
The performance discussions are happening earlier so you should have a check in with your manager at the end of March.
If rated a low performer during this discussion I would be concerned.
However let’s be honest there will be some managers that are afraid to rate people as low performers because they don’t like conflict or they don’t want people to be let go given the current environment.
So if yet again there is not enough people some other factor like job relevance or seniority would need to come into play.
Don’t jump to thinking the company is a monster they are a business doing what businesses do.
Do I like it? No, I hate it, but I also know the industry I work in.
At the end of the day, just do your best, stay positive and try not to worry because worry does nothing but make us weird (in a bad way) and stressed.