Maybe in US you do. In UK "laying off" a programmer for anything other than major breach of contract(like being caught red handed stealing) and without making the position demonstrably redundant, takes about ~6 months and it's not a pretty process. Laying off should be the option of last resort, purely because of how incredibly costly it is(not just financially - going through the right steps takes time from both HR and other engineers).
> ...takes about ~6 months and it's not a pretty process.
This fact is clearly expressed in the UK contractor market which seems to consistently pay a 2x premium over salaried employees. Whilst some of this premium may be based on skills I'd wager a lot of it is buying the right to end employment at short notice (either due to poor performance, or simply in response to changing business requirements making the role obsolete).
In the US it’s quite common in a lay-off for 2/3rds of the victims to be unpopular people anyway.
No boss is gonna fight for someone who is getting the stink eye already. The lay-off lets then fire with cause without actually doing it. Kinda cowardly, but I’ve worked at places that cut proactively and things got even more toxic. Conversations speculating about who will get laid off next shouldn’t be a weekly thing. It’s paralyzing.
It's quite simple, you lay them off. I've seen it happen more than once.