Googler... ex-Googler

"I'm told this comes as a shock to my managers and other Chrome team leaders. I'm told it's not based on merit"

If your manager is shocked by one of their team being laid off, the manager is probably next.

Of course the OP was told it wasn't based on merit, or any other arguable-in-court characteristic.

But it was. Someone decided Google was better off this way, or that OP was better off working somewhere else.

Managers often feign cluelessness because what else can they do? Tell you they submitted you for layoffs? Tell you they knew for weeks and said nothing? There's really no upside option here.

I have no doubt that sometimes managers really don't know, but I'd wager that most who say they didn't know probably did.