Lucas Arts (the game arm of Lucas Film) has been doing this since the early 2000s. Allegedly, new management came from the film industry and could not comprehend why their game studios kept FTEs between projects. So they started laying off most of the staff at the end of a project to rehire them a few months later. After a couple of iterations they started canceling projects because they could not get enough staff (e.g. the PS3/360 Indiana Jones game could not start because of this, allegedly) and eventually had to shut down their game business all together despite being one of the bigger players at the turn of the century. I have not been working there but have quite a few acquaintances who did and all of them had been out by ~2007. I also had to turn down dozens of their recruiters during those times.
For a while when I was frustrated with coworkers I dreamed of joining a company that openly said they fired the bottom x%. I think Netflix had a presentation along those lines. I’m older and less into the idea now, but it might attract young confident people who care too much about their work, which is mostly what tech companies want.
I don’t know of many industry veterans who look lovingly over that fence. My impression is that they use an “overwork the eager graduate” style of hiring, like many in the top ten tech companies do.
Meanwhile the careerists at Microsoft seem pretty happy, fwiw. My closest friend there seems content to work there for the rest of his life and he seems to be producing good quality work, even if they are pushing him into management.
Depends on the industry. Happens often enough in cyclical industries like retail, consulting and financial services. It’s more shocking when old-line stable companies lay off for the first time. One of the lessons from IBM and HP is the first cut is rarely the last.
