Earlier quoted context omitted.
HR is in charge of minimizing risk to the company. One thing that is very risky is claiming performance reasons are a reason for firing when it’s really a layoff. Depending on where they are the state will not be happy that they are trying to game the unemployment system, and federally they may be in violation of the WARN act. HR is the department responsible for knowing this and not allowing this sort of bs.
Having worked for years in the HR space and at the intersection of compliance, recruiting, legal, and business tech, it's not a complete argument to say that HR is to blame here. Executive leadership, shareholders (and likely consultants) are responsible for these "layoffs". They are the root cause. It most likely still holds true that their decision making is "bigger picture" nonsense based on budgets and short term…
And now they have created a bit of a pr snafu. How many talented people with good performance reviews at Cloudflare are now looking for the door.