@OP some of us have been here a long time, you may have been also... but EVERYONE does not get notified on the Thursday of a pay period... as you step down in bands the notification gets earlier.
Not sure if you got the emails about JR and MH a month or so ago, they did not just decide to "explore new things" that is exec talk for RIF, and that was certainly the first step in this RIF coming Thursday...
If YOU remember the November ones the highest ups got notified almost 3 weeks in advance if they were impacted, and it was not a Thursday. But maybe you were not paying that close attention.
The bulk of the employees, bc the number hit is always higher the the higher band you go (so the grunts like you and me get notified on Thursdays) TYPICALLY, but there are always targeted layoffs that hit whenever they want to hit.
Band 5s getting notified ahead of 6,7,8 tracks with the companies history.
At the end of the day, there is no required process that I am aware of... if I had to guess they layoffs the minions on Thursdays of payweeks so we get paid that night and feel a little better that the execs all have golden parachutes like 3.5 million in stock they can sell the week before they get RIFd... MH...? I dunno