The company I work for lost a MAJOR customer last fall. Management panicked, and rushed everyone to sign a non-compete agreement. Only after getting all the agreements signed did they let everyone know what had happened, and that there would be massive layoffs.
Fucking psychos had just gone through a huge hiring phase. Some new employees had only been there a matter of months before finding out they would lose their job, and wouldn’t be able to get a new one in the same industry unless they waited two years.