Saw this in my company few years ago when "agile" management was at the helm. But it was more in "cut X % workforce immediately", repeated few times even when financials were OK. It stressed people to no end, even well above average ones.

Quite a few better ones left on their own. The company definitely lost overall. The next CEO guy came targeted especially this - something along the lines of "we let leavers/retirees go and just don't hire for now". It worked wonders, people were more focused on actual work and job hunting.