Do you have any further details?
Re: token compensation -
Actually, the whole thing is kind of goofy. Thankfully my division was not directly involved, but a group we work closely with was. They sent letters to the “lucky” selected. Included in the letter was an insistence of non-disclosure of the terms. But the terms leaked anyways.
We used to have a rather generous severance package for RIFs. My understanding is the “bonus” for training your replacement was significantly less than the previous severance package. Like 5-10k verses a week or two per year of service.
Since these guys were generally over 60 and had 20+ years of service (some approaching 40 years), severance would have been many times that number.
One thing to mention - we as a company have been concerned about our aging staff. There clearly is a need to train a “rising generation” to replace these guys, who would be retiring naturally in the next 5-10 years anyways. But the way this is being done is rather tone-deaf.