I was a manager at CA who was laid off.
My manager had a team of loyal buddies reporting to him and a couple of us outliers. When layoffs came, he gave my job to his friend whose project had just gone away. He had no management experience, even worse barely any experience in our field! Several of my team called me asking who is this guy?
Why was he chosen? I didn't have the heart to tell them why so just told them to support him. A departmental ghost who suddenly appeared. He hid from my team until he could find something else. It was heartbreaking for me because I built the team from an existing mismanaged mess and they were really coming together.
My team was stunned for a while, not being able to make sense of the change. That's how it goes when people misuse their power. Let's lay off a competent manager who has been successfully building a troubled team because my buddy lost his project and needs a job. The other two outliers reporting to my manager were laid off in later rounds while the loyal buddies were preserved. That's the CA way and I guess plenty of other companies. I think I need better friends.