Are layoffs more impersonal or were they always like this?

I have heard secondhand of a layoff (I believe at Evans & Sutherland) where they were doing a large layoff in one day. They began with the managers that were being let go. When those were gone, there was nobody to tell their subordinates whether they still had jobs. So they force logged everyone off of the network. If you could log back on, you still had a job.

That wasn't intentionally impersonal. It just worked out that way because of poor implementation. But it was still pretty bad.

This was in the 1980s or 90s - I think 80s.

They tried for a more personal touch where I worked (rhymes with bewlett backard). They schedeluled everyone for an hr interview but everyone staying was scheduled for 5 minutes, and everyone laid off was scheduled for 15. Since everyone could see the calendar everyone figured it out instantly.