I cannot comment on the specifics of the Microsoft layoffs, but one thing in the announcement jumped out to me as particularly bad:

…with some notifications happening today

Yuck. The rest of the 100K+ employees just get to sweat it out for the rest of the year. Maybe the news broke before they were fully ready, but this is not an acceptable way to treat your employees (especially when your pockets are as deep as Microsoft’s).

I have worked through a couple major layoffs. The second was full of remote employees, and the founder wanted to take the time to talk to each employee affected. I knew I was safe and who would ultimately be let go. It was a dreadful day of waiting for everyone (obviously worse for those let go).

Extending this longer than today should be a crime.