Let me give you a peek into the workings of an LR (Source: @IGXXwSC-1gdx ).
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About a 3 months in advance you start to see the warning signs. Backfills don't get approved, OpEx gets slashed, budget pressure ramps up. Some examples of budget pressure ramping up, travel freezes, capital requests at or below previous levels are asked to be pushed out to next quarter. This is them starting to see what their minimal OpEx level is to establish a baseline.
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About 2-3 months in advance, someone usually at the director level, sometimes at the manager level sometimes at the VP level, gets asked to start preparing data, this could be as obvious as a ranking of all employees against a specific set of criteria. or as subtle as put together a list of what everyone is working on and their role.
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About 1 month in advance this list is set. That list then goes through scrutiny by the lawyers, HR, etc. to make sure that it is legally defensible. Have we disproportionately targeted any individuals in protected categories in groups that are not being entirely eliminated. For example if you have a team of 10, 2 people being laid off and you target two GL 10s in a protected category leaving 4 GL10s not in a protected category and 2 GL 8s not in a protected category, expect HR to tell you to change the list. This is analyzed at various levels,
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Two weeks before the layoff, the lists are finalized and all of the data needed starts to get generated, they start preparing the packets (electronically), start training HR, preparing the manager materials etc.
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One week to a few days before they give the manager training. Here's what you can say, here's what you can't say. Read from your script. Don't deviate, don't engage in any discussion.
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One to two days managers are told to schedule time with those employees impacted especially if they are remote, or frequently don't work in the office. Managers are also given access to the packets for those impacted employees to review them.
This year if the timelines being bandied about are correct there may be some changes to the last few steps. We are expecting them to tell Wall Street in the Earnings Meeting and do layoffs the next day.
So the reason it is too late is the list is already set. You are on it or you are not. Changing it at this date would be very difficult. About the only shot would be if they already have a problem they have to fix because the lawyers have chimed in saying you may be in a bad position and need to change a person on the list.
I fully expect to get hit this time. Having had to be on the other side of this more times than I care to remember, I'm actually looking forward to it in some ways. I'm not looking forward to looking for a new job on the wrong side of 40, but I am hoping I'll find something where I never again have to sit across the desk from someone, who just had a baby, bought a new house, or had health problems in their family in the past year, and tell them that due to "business decisions, Cisco has decided to eliminate a number of positions in the company, that your position is one of those impacted and that effective immediately your job duties are ended. Here is your packet of information, and you have 2 weeks to find another position within Cisco. If you have any questions about this you can contact this HR person."
The worst part for me is that I've almost (but not quite) become immune to it. The first few times I had to do it, I literally sat in my office and cried afterward. The last time, I just went on to my next meeting with a pit in my stomach.
So I'll wish you all the best of luck. Whether that means you get lucky and are impacted or get lucky and are not, is a subjective decision only you can make.