I can think of a certain 135 operator that flew c210's that "has never furloughed a pilot" that used the line check process as a way to remove excess pilots. The OP is not out of line, there are some really scummy operators out there, but I don't believe it is a "thing" in the 121 world. I personally have no interest in leaving the 121 world, with this being one of the reasons. I watched 60 people show up to this operators ground school, by day 2, only 12 of us remained. Their sim had a bug where it would go into a spiral nose dive. The first ******** instructor failed everyone that it happened to. I was one of the last to go, I had the chief pilot for my sim eval. Spiral nosedive happened to me as well. The chief pilot laughs and says, "Yes, the sim has a bug, don't worry about it".
By the way, the company is out of business, the chief pilot got nailed by the FAA for abusing the system and lost his ratings. The sad part is that the other guy is now at Jet Blue.