That’s just the dead weight.
Well I know people don't like to hear that but it's mostly true. I've been in management for close to 30 years and have been in a lot of layoff situations due to mergers, declining revenues, and other business factors.
When we select people to be laid off, it is always those we feel we can best live without.
I know people's egos are such that they attribute their layoff to other factors, such as they are too highly compensated or they are too old, for instance. But the fact it, we decided that they were not contributing to their full potential so the pink slips went to them.
If you are a high contributor, dependable, play well in the sandbox and you are not a "problem" employee, you will be among the very last people to be let go. Trust me on this.
The 12,000 Google people losing their jobs are the complainers, the whiners, the shirkers, the type of people who are more concerned about inserting pronouns in their email signatures than doing their damn jobs.