One time when I was in one of these calls. It was pretty obvious it was coming, the company wasn't doing great and there were plenty of whispers. Still, I was pretty upset I was laid off, because it's just not a fun feeling. After the HR person explained the severance and COBRA stuff, I said something to the CTO like "I wish you all the best in trying to save this company, and for the sake of this conversation, let's…
You should have been straightforward and told them to go fuck themselves. Laying people off by a brief call is for cowards.
Most programming jobs are remote. What's the alternative, exactly?