its called surgical layoffs -- small batches of layoffs (100 here, 50 there) -- and it will continue to happen. it avoids bad press with jaw-dropping large scale layoffs.
Read this in another thread and I thought it hit the nail on the head. Not only does this avoid bad press, it also insures that no WARN is necessary.
Double win for Viacom, not so much for us as we will never be able to relax anymore. Instead of one big layoff, we have to wait for probably dozens of small ones. I guess job security is a thing of the past.