Hopefully they were at least given some sorta financial compensation. Seems harsh to drop the news 7 days before Christmas

Apparently the workers were contract workers with a 6 month contract. This is a quote from a ZOS employee about the situation.

"While it certainly sucks for those people involved in the "layoff" and the time of year is bad, it should be known these people were hired on a six month contract which has expired. They were hired to assist with the console launch which happened in June and six months later their contract is done. The fact they didn't get a new contract is being reported as layoffs for some reason - perhaps technically it is. The same thing happened in 2014 with the PC release. We certainly wish all the affected luck in finding new jobs."