You typically are asked to work longer hours to make up for missing staff, deal with a lot of nonsense and get "at least you didn't get laid off" as a reward at the end of it. When the money people turn out their pockets (become low performers in their role) no point in sticking around or at very least, no reason to coutinue to be a high performer when the business is signaling its going to be a low performer in regards to the value its going to be able to deliver to you.

>You typically are asked to work longer hours to make up for missing staff

In my country that would be illegal

A wild guess:

- The people let go might have been good friends or at least people they enjoyed working with.

- While they’re not targeted, their coworkers are, they’ll sympathize with the tension. Also that workforce is now doing the same work amount with fewer people.

- They are expected to do a lot of education and bringing people up to speed. More churn means more work, and it’s also harder emotionally if you’re not sure how long the person will stay in the company.

>Also that workforce is now doing the same work amount with fewer people.

Not always.

Sometimes projects are killed, so amount of work stays the same, or even better - some people are moved to help other teams