Why get rid of some of the best employees with most experience? How is that going to help Ciena in the long run? I understand that older people with more years with the company earn more on average, but there is a good reason for that.
I really don't understand the reasoning of our management on this...
I was an award-winner employee in Ciena and a lay off target. Let me tell you why they do not lay off older people. It is because if they are in the company for more than 5 years , they are entitled to receive severance pay if they get laid off. To my experience the company targets those who have been there for less than 5 years because these people are not eligible for severance payment. The company even offers bonus payment if you sign release documents in a week or so. To my experience the average years of service in Ciena before lay off is 3 years. That's the reason that I suggest my Ciena friends to look for a new job when they pass the second year. I did that myself and I am glad I trusted my intuition; I got a new job in a week after layoff because I had applied for it before the lay off. Hopefully, people who consider unstable companies like Ciena read my message.
You probably heard that Stalin just prior to WWII did massive purge of best of the Red Army officers. Stalin felt vulnerable and paranoid. When Germany invaded newly appointed Red Army officers with no experience let Germans at the doors pf Moscow and Leningrad. Hope you can derive why from this short anecdote. Good luck.