By Nancy Koury King, DM
Being laid off or let go is one of the most brutal experiences an employee can undergo. Not only is job loss a threat to financial wellbeing and health care, it is also a significant emotional trauma with reactions including shame, humiliation, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness. On top of that, a key source of the individual’s social and professional identities is gone.
In the book, Real Research for Real Managers, Dr. Jone Pearce states that these unfortunate experiences are made worse, for both the departing and the remaining employees, when management handles them without thoughtfulness and sensitivity. In fact, bungled dismissals are one of the greatest threats to an organization’s employee engagement and reputation. We’ve seen these unseemly and needlessly callous separations in the news and all over social media. For example, according to a New York Times report, former FBI director James Comey found out President Trump fired him while addressing FBI employees. The television coverage of his firing was broadcast over monitors in the room.
You may have witnessed some distressing departures where you work. Often being laid off or let go is an abrupt and/or humiliating experience. People lose their jobs without notice, without a goodbye, and without a thank you.
Stories from the Front Lines
I have collected dozens of stories from people who have been fired or laid off for my book, Fired: How to Manage Your Career in the Age of Job Uncertainty. They provided me with many stories of insensitive and poorly managed dismissals, like one company that invited the department to the conference room for cake and instead of a celebration were told their jobs were being eliminated. Or another person, who won a company-wide award, was, a year later let go and immediately perp-walked by security out the door in front of fellow workers. Several people told me that they were abruptly asked, without notice, to leave — later learning the company sent out an email at 4:55 pm saying “. . . Jane Doe is longer with XYZ Company.”
Now to be clear, I am not talking about the very necessary or high-risk terminations when an employee is clearly violating rules, potentially a threat, or abusing alcohol or other drugs. That’s another story. I am talking about people who are laid off or perhaps not able to do their job well. Or people who are subject to organizational restructuring or a new leader who wants to bring in his/her own people.
Protect Your Reputation
So, how do these poorly executed separations affect the organization? First, assume that your remaining employees will either hear directly or indirectly about the incident and talk about it. Someone will talk to the separated employee(s) and hear about how they were treated. Or another employee might have witnessed the exit. When remaining employees see their friends treated poorly they wonder, “Am I next?” or “Is this company worth my loyalty?” In addition, they may advocate for the separated employee at work or on social media. Some employees react by disengaging, doing just enough to get by, but no longer share enthusiasm for their employer. One person said to me, “I can’t wrap my whole world around this job anymore.” They become distrustful of management and no longer feel safe.
It can also affect customers and suppliers. Often they forge relationships with employees of the supplier, and as such, are part of the conversation and rumors about the separations. Or customers may wonder about the stability of the company.
Finally, a significant consequence of poorly managed separations is that unhappy employees, remaining and departed, share their experiences on social media. Glassdoor, for example, provides a powerful and free forum for people to write reviews of a company’s culture and how it treats its employees. It is common for potential new hires from the front line to the C-suite to research your company on social media and pay attention to the disgruntled and/or former employee reviews about working there. In fact, according to Glassdoor, 79% of job seekers use social media during their job search.
How to End It Right
Difficult decisions around layoffs and separations are a part of management. And, as hard as they are, sometimes we make the impact worse than it has to be. So what can organizations do to ease the impact of layoffs and separations?
First
If at all possible, provide the affected employee(s) notice. Admittedly, most lawyers and HR people will tell you to have the employee exit as soon as you tell them they will no longer have a job. Also, since letting someone go is one of the most painful things a manager can do, there is a tendency to have the person leave quickly so as not to be reminded of them. Yet, notice allows people to take care of things like getting their resume in order, looking at health insurance, and applying for unemployment. It also gives them a chance to say goodbye to co-workers. It tells the employees, departing and remaining, that you trust them.
Second
Tell employees as soon as you can. The last thing you want is for someone to buy a new car or spend a lot of money on Christmas when you know they are going to be laid off or let go. And, let’s be honest, companies are not very good at keeping secrets. So often the word leaks out before the official announcement. Better to do a planned, thoughtful announcement than to be caught off guard by rumors.
Third
Communicate, communicate, communicate. It’s a given that much of the information around layoffs and terminations is confidential. That said, try to be as honest as possible about what is creating the number and timing of the layoffs, such as worse than expected growth results, an unprofitable business line, needing to cut expenses, etc. These explanations help people save face and somewhat depersonalize the event. In the case of a termination, work with the employee to create an exit story so that he or she has an agreed-upon explanation to share with co-workers, future employers, family, and friends. And, do not justify your decisions to others by blaming or scapegoating the person who was let go.
Fourth
Try not to let people go the last week of the month. Health insurance starts the first of every month and lasts for the entire month. So if someone is let go the 5th of the month, they have a little extra health care coverage before they need to go on COBRA or purchase new health insurance. People separated at the end of the month have to move quickly to get coverage while dealing with the fallout from job loss. If possible, include severance or pay out their accrued vacation time. If outplacement services or an EAP are possible, offer those as well.
Fifth
Help those affected find other positions in the organization. This is not always possible or practical, but this is a very positive sign of goodwill. Even in separations, you may find the person is just not in the right seat on the bus and they may be a better fit elsewhere in the organization. If the individuals were good employees, offer them assistance in getting re-employed. Offer to be a reference.
Sixth
Make the announcement of the separation to the rest of your company in a caring manner. Nothing screams “you don’t care about employees” like a Friday, 4:45 email that says so and so is no longer with the company. If there are ways to acknowledge their years of service and their contributions, all the better.
Seventh
Allow your employees to craft a message (with your approval) to their co-workers and customers, and for social media. This gives the employees some control in the situation. I have seen some excellent examples of people letting others know they no longer have a job, “. . . but are grateful for their time with their employer and are looking forward to new opportunities.” Having an exit story also helps reduce the chance that a disgruntled employee will inflict reputational damage on the company. And it positions the employee in a positive and professional manner that their next employer will appreciate.
Grace and Dignity
It is so difficult to let someone go, whether they “deserve” it or not. Handling these gut-wrenching decisions with grace and dignity helps the departing employee cope with this difficult transition. Sensitive and professional handling of layoffs and separations also helps leaders keep the trust with their employees. In both cases, it’s the right thing to do.
Whether departures from your organization are voluntary or involuntary, handle with care: Red carpet in, red carpet out.
References
King, Nancy Koury. Fired: How to manage your career in the age of job uncertainty. Create Space Publisher Independent Publishing Platform. December 2017
Michael D. Shear and Matt Apuzzo, FBI Director James Comey is Fired by Trump, New York Times. May 9, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/james-comey-fired-fbi.html
Pearce, Jone. Organizational Behavior: Real Research for Real Managers. Melvin & Leigh, Publishers; First Edition (2009)
Your article inspired me when it arrived this morning in my inbox. I immediately bought the book on Kindle. I’ve devoured it. Thank you for researching this and sharing your thoughts.
Your article counsels managers to be creatively sensitive when facing the task of letting someone go. The immediate motivation may be downsizing or performance questions, but the dismissal will inevitably be devastating for the person let go. Leaders don’t enjoy having to tell someone they’re no longer needed. We can hope that all leaders are compassionate. Your advice is sound.
Your book, in contrast to the article, is less addressed toward management and is focused more on the experiences of those who are impacted directly, i.e. those who find themselves suddenly out of work and facing questionable future prospects. In an era in which personal loyalty is often valued more highly than merit or commitment to the business mission, many firings are personality based. It’s important that the terminated employee hit the ground running and release the feeling that they are somehow at fault.
This was brought home to me the first time I was released from a position that I loved and cherished. The circumstances, in retrospect, were clearly political. The year was 1982, nearly forty years ago, and I had equipped the department I led with personal computers in a time when mainframe specialists were in the corporate ascendancy. My focus had been on the corporate mission and cost effectiveness. I was blind to the political currents that would see a new technology as a threat to adherents for an older technology.
The company had a counselor who met with me immediately after I was given the news. He knew me and he provided sage advice, namely, “Talent finds its own level, and you will land on your feet just fine.” That seemed like a distant hope at the time but it proved to be true, and I soon found new employment at a higher salary.
Frankly, I’ve been on both sides of this dramatic encounter as you say in your book that you have been. Usually, people who were underperforming were simply in a job that they didn’t like. I was able to counsel them to move on, and by bending the corporate rules a bit (with due deference to Human Resources), I was able to help them on their way by keeping them on the payroll for a couple of weeks while they were free to spend fulltime pursuing a happier situation.
In other cases, we were able to settle things with “The Talk,” which begins with “Here’s what you have to do, if you want to continue working here.” If that performance boost didn’t materialize, generally it was evident to both of us, and I was able to nudge them out by counseling them on what employers expect.
The most difficult situations were layoffs required to bring costs under control. In one case, we lost a big customer and the business shrank. I think everyone saw what was coming. It was still difficult. In another, the business had given many people mercy promotions and they were earning way above the level at which they were able to function. Those are among the most difficult terminations for a manager to have to participate in.
Unfortunately, some managers try to win the loyalty of employees by promoting them. That can lead to a situation in which the business has no choice but let them go. It’s best to let people find satisfaction in the mastery of the position for which they are best qualified, rather than to have the rush of promoting them only to see them later fall short.
At a later time in my own career, I too lost my position in the wake of a corporate takeover and the wish of the acquiring firm to cut costs. The purchaser, a well-known Wall Street shark, followed the dictum that good managers develop their successors. His first action, therefore, was to terminate the top six corporate executives, and to turn the direction of the company over to their subordinates.
As an aside, I can say with respect to both instances in which I had to find new employment, the companies for which I worked eventually failed. That’s small comfort, though, for people who are committed to seeing their employers succeed rather than just doing the politically popular thing.
In my time, the book of the moment was, “What Color is Your Parachute?” which is a good question for any person with a job to ponder in today’s world. Regardless of how secure one thinks their job is, or how fine they know their performance to be, they should always have in mind what they will do if the job disappears. That can happen in an instant.
The choices are to look for a job or to start your own business, perhaps as a freelance, or to do both at once. If you give your job search, the same time and activity intensity that you brought to your job itself, you can be assured that your talent will find its level. You have brought a new book to us for today’s business climate. I recommend it to anyone who has to face the insecurity of today.
My advice to those who lose their jobs is similar to the advice you provide in your book. Take stock of your situation; be realistic about what happened: and believe that you will be happier months after the termination shock than you ever were slogging along thinking that your employment would last forever.