A break to contemplate laying off friends and the next steps

Lay off

Have you been laid off as an employee? The experience is usually filled with faux pas. Most employees, including myself, have been laid off, and if you had a bad experience, you are not alone. A reader emailed me about a bad experience during a layoff. This was the trigger for this post. I have been laid off and am responsible for laying off employees. Unfortunately, I have a unique perspective and a few personal theories. I thought this perspective might be helpful to some readers.

For those who don’t know, I was “laid off” about a month after our company was acquired. I stuck around for a month to help folks find jobs and then took a month off to go fishing. Standing in a river for eight hours a day can have a very introspective effect on a guy. This post comes out of some of that retrospective. 

Lay-offs suck

If you have been laid off, it sucked. Being let go after 5, 10, or 20 years of working for the man or a company you love can make it all feel like a waste of time. Being hired and let go after 3 months can be just as painful. You are excited about the new career and emotionally invested. Both instances are events we will never forget. A few potential situations are listed below:

• Did you feel like you were treated with little or no respect?
• Were the reasons for the layoff understandable?
• Were benefits, COBRA, unemployment, and messaging explained to you? Or did you feel lost and helpless?
• Were you given any help in finding your next gig?
• Was unemployment, severance, or the lack of severance explained to you?
  

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If this is resonating and could use something practical to steady you, I’ve written a free, short 24-hour survival guide that focuses on what to do and what to avoid while emotions are still raw. It’s here when you are ready. 

Laid Off Survival Guide

The guide is intentionally short, focused, and practical.

It’s meant to:

• • • Lower the noise
    • Help you make fewer irreversible mistakes
    • Give you back a sense of agency

This guide is free because it’s meant to support people during a difficult moment, not to sell to them.

 Download the Laid Off Survival Guide

(Free Download, no email required)

We usually know what’s up

I think that most employees understand why layoffs happen. In many instances, if we pay attention, we can recognize the signs of change ahead of time. Over time, most employees come to understand that the company is a business and that a layoff isn’t personal.

When the messaging during a reduction in force is off-key, it can do more harm. The layoff feels personal. 

This is the part of the layoff that I want to address. I want to say that layoffs are not personal. Being laid off is strictly a business decision. This is not a personal or individual decision. Making a layoff personal is the last thing any company wants. The intent and the impact are two different things. The following is NOT an excuse for HR. I want to provide a business perspective to help employees understand the root causes.

There is usually no training 

Most HR professionals don’t train for a layoff. I don’t. Firemen and firewomen train to put out fires. When not putting out fires, there is teaching and training. Policemen practice at the firing range. Olympic athletes lift weights and practice their routines for 8 hours a day, for what can amount to a 2-minute performance.  In all three examples, there is extensive training and rehearsal before the event. HR departments should practice these conversations.

We have always had an hour-by-hour plan

I do not know any HR professionals who have attended layoff training days. There are no seminars at the SHRM conferences on how to conduct layoffs. I know the information is out there. But admittedly, this is not the feel-good seminar I am rushing to sign up for at the HR conference/convention. HR folks learn how to handle layoffs through trial and error, and everyone is different. I have been through more layoffs than I want to admit.

This is not something I say to brag, but to provide perspective. No formula says “X” number of employees equals this chain of events. I insist that we lay out a timeline of events for a few days leading up to the event. This timeline included 30-minute increments for the day of the event. In every instance, there was a play change at the last minute. 

HR folks are well-intentioned

I know a lot of HR peeps. I know only a handful of HR folks who have conducted layoffs, and they are all well-intentioned. In small to medium companies, the HR team may be early in their career. Through no fault of their own, this team lacks “layoff” experience. There are no training wheels for a layoff, and just like riding a bike, most of us are not 100% successful the first time.  

Again, this is not an excuse. I want to provide some perspective on what it takes to put a layoff together and how little experience most of us have had with this. I hire employees and give them raises every month. HR people have plenty of “happy moments experience.” I have led only seven layoffs in my 20 years of HR practice. They have all been different. Some layoffs have occurred because we acquired a company, and others because the company changed direction. A few have been because the company was in financial distress. Every event was a different situation with different messaging and different mechanics.

HR people feel shitty on this day, and weeks after

Believe it or not, the HR folks handling the layoffs feel horrible for having to conduct them. No one is more aware than employees that they are losing their jobs and paychecks. We know there are mouths to feed at home, mortgages to pay, and college tuition on the line. We know that personal pride is at stake. HR teams feel guilty when they are employed after escorting their friends and co-workers out the door.

It is heart-wrenching to tell colleagues they are no longer needed. Multiply this conversation by 10 or 50, and you will be crying after work. If you need to deliver this message to many employees, it may require a company-wide email. There is no way that email can convey the feelings you want to express in this situation.

HR folks are thinking about their personal job searches 

This is a shitty part of the HR job, and in many cases, the HR folks lose their jobs as soon as all the layoff administrative paperwork is complete. They are literally working themselves out of a job. There is nothing to look forward to and no time to conduct personal job searches.

If you had to conduct a layoff, would you enter the situation happy, smiling, or full of dread? Everyone is scared, nervous, and anxious about these conversations. If you are an HR person keeping your job, you feel embarrassed and guilty. These are not the emotions that make a smooth transition.

To this day, I still practice every bullet point below:

• Put together an outline of talking points for anyone with ANYTHING to say. Work with marketing if you can. Where we may not have much experience with layoffs, a senior marketing person in the company often understands internal messaging and can help ensure consistency.
• Talk to your peers who have conducted layoffs and pick their brains for any advice they may have.
• Talk to your CEO or a senior leader in the company. Ask them for introductions to colleagues who have conducted layoffs. This is not the time to reinvent the wheel.

Communication Musts

• Send a message to ALL employees with instructions on responding to any press inquiries. Only pre-designated personnel should handle these inquiries with a pre-determined message.
• Employees scheduled to speak with an exiting employee should practice with someone experienced. I insist that first-time managers have a dress rehearsal. Laid-off employees should not be the guinea pigs so a new manager can gain “hard conversation experience.” This allows for complete comprehension of the intent and impact of the messaging and gives time to clear up any confusion. 

Common Courtesies

• Please do whatever you can to help employees find their next gig. Whether that is contacting external recruiters, conducting a resume workshop after hours or on the weekend, or helping folks with their LinkedIn profiles. When we faced significant layoffs, we brought in outside recruiter agencies and hosted a mini-career fair. 
• Remember, offices are in different time zones, so double-check the timing of messages.

HR is judged and remembered for this day

This day will be the one thing that employees staying and those leaving the company will remember. Both will share their experiences with friends and family. HR departments will receive criticism. I don’t expect anyone to like being laid off. I am hopeful that with proper communication, messaging, and intent, we will have a shot at all employees respecting the business decision.

If you’re reading this because you’ve just been laid off, you don’t need to make big decisions today.

I put together a free guide designed to help you slow down and avoid the most common post-layoff mistakes.

👉View the PDF for Desktop and Printing: Laid Off Survival Guide P

👉View the EPUB Mobile Friendly: Laid Off Survival Guide M

Thanks for listening,
HRNasty

nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball”.

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