"Downsizing" is yet another opportunity for narcissists to have fun by causing pain. The most productive technique for them is called "social bullying", usually arranged in a business setting by the bosses holding meetings from which the targets are deliberately excluded. This causes great pain in the targets since they can only guess at what the subject of the meeting was.
Then of course there is the firing by remote control.
First use of this technique I'm aware of was the financial meltdown around 1990 in London.
Employees of JP Morgan or suchlike company that would be kept were couriered a new ID Swipe card over a weekend.
Come Monday morning, security guards were posted at the doors and if your ID didn't work you were handed a bit of paper explaining you had been terminated and any personal possessions in the office would be sent to you.
One kid got so mad he threw the keys to his BMW company car into the Thames.
IBM are also known for having people escorted out of the building when they have been fired, so as to avoid the obvious.
The moral of the story is that if you have personal information or your own diary and industry contact lists, you had better keep them at home. In addition, any "knowledge worker" should look at the Intellectual Property provisions of their employment contract, and take steps to secure any writings that are legally theirs.