Employees are almost always in the dark prior to getting “the pink slip”. In my 35+ year career have been through multiple layoffs through multiple companies/buyouts both on the surviving and RIF implementation side as well as the side getting cut. Never, ever was there full transparency and this was intentional. Most often the RIF itself is hidden from the general employee populace until the moment it starts happening. Then it starts happening and everyone sits around during the chaos and wonders if they are next while blood and tears run down the halls of the offices. Layoffs are ugly and there is no way to make them less ugly unless gobs of cash are provided to soften the blow. Even then, speaking from experience, it still sucks…just sucks a little less.

Everyone who got RIF’ed from the executives downward should not have been surprised. His intentions has been broadcast publicly from Musk himself for six months. I think this has actually been more transparent than most and perhaps because it’s more public than most, the external scrutiny makes it seem worse than others. It’s not, because as I said before, it’s always ugly.