This reads like someone really trying to get somewhere but they have nothing to work with. Big tech has been irresponsibly over-hiring with impunity for years. That is unsustainable.

As someone who has worked in multiple big tech companies, I’ve seen multitudes of managers come in with the goal of growing their teams as a means of padding by their resumes. These teams will be vastly over-provisioned with dismal output proportional to their team size. The manager will leave the team while claiming a win for himself but really just putting ButtsInSeats and junior/mid career workers with far too little work on their plate.

Anyone with insider familiarity in big tech that is surprised by layoffs is living in a dream.