Actions for those who survive layoffs
They’re firing my colleagues [Work Lessons]
Waves of firing are not a new phenomena. When it’s at your doorstep, it’s sharper than a headline. To the harsh organization, this is ‘liberating’ in terms of cost reduction. It’s not personal. To the employees and their families— it’s nothing less than tragic. What about a third group — the employees who are not fired? This group is deeply affected by what happened, both for the short term, and longer down the road in their career.
The absence of being fired, in this context, is equivalent to being ‘spared’. If workplaces are like battleground, it’s like surviving a battle. The initial reaction is shock that this could happen. Maybe disbelief, even outrage. On the personal level it’s hard to see the ‘loss.’ Colleagues and sometimes friends have to deal with the tough unknown in front of them. How quick will they get back on their feet? How will they support themselves and their loved ones in the short term? What does this mean for their future? Grappling with these questions is an act of sympathy for what colleagues are going through. Then, there’s fear. Colleagues who are still employed will be asking: will they fire me too? Is it a matter of time? If so, how much? Job security gets wobbly.
As these turbulent questions percolate, there are other issues that those who are not fired have to navigate. (1) how to relate to the colleagues who are fired, (2) How to relate to the employment in general at the organization, (3) how to relate to colleagues who stay, (4) and how to relate to HR. Let’s break these down.
1 How to Relate to colleagues who are fired
It can be awkward broaching the topic. It’s easier to disengage from the topic and take a step back, as if they have been inflicted with a contagious disease. On the other end of the spectrum, the bold and hard move here is to pursue supporting colleagues you care about. To tell them you are there for them. To acknowledge how hard it must be. To listen to them vent and express their frustration, anger, and experience. Here, it’s not helpful to have too much pity. It’s important to be sensitive of the fact that they know that you are not fired. Some concreate ways to help are to:
- look over a colleague’s resume
- use network to try and find a job for colleague
- offer to talk about it over lunch
- remind them of the positive things you had to say about working with them
- offer to be an employment reference
2 How to Relate to your employment in general at the organization
Employees — those who are not fired, can stay or quit (go). If they do, they can do so actively or passively. Let’s tease those out a bit.
1 Stay- active
Those not fired have a new status — not being fired. It is not business as usual, since they just had to say goodbye to colleagues. This situation can conjure strong emotions. Anger at the organization. Gratitude for not being fired. Fear of being fired soon. This group of people decide to try and stay at the company. They may dread having to look for new work. They may not be infuriated at the organization. Their narrative may be something like:
this kind of thing happens sometimes under capitalism.
Having made their decision to try and stay, they will take actions to ensure this decision pans out. This may mean trying to use the firing to be promoted. Maybe there’s an open chair now. Maybe they can grow in their career. Maybe they can change the scope of their work to be more desirable. Alternatively, they fear being fired so will not step up their game and do whatever behavior in the organization is deemed respectable. Do more hours, for example. Stay later. (Hopefully neither of these are venerated, since they are dumb as proxies for work success).
2 Go- active
This group of people are angry or frustrated with the organization. Maybe the firings weren’t conducted with respect, and done in a way that made all the employees feel replaceable. Maybe now they suspect they will be fired, so don’t want to wait to be caught by surprise. This group will start to look for work elsewhere, or, if they can afford it, may quit right away.
3 Stay- passive
Then, there are people who will stay, and continue life as usual. This is a survivalist response. The context is too intense, too frightening, too much to handle — so employees go into autopilot. And hope they, too, won’t get the ax. They may conspicuously bring conversations back to the immediate work tasks at hand, trying to evade the elephant in the room.
4 Go- passive
This group does not have the activation energy or boldness to make a decisive move, but instead hang on loosely. They may be similarly infuriated or feel betrayed by the organization, but will not take strong action. Instead, they will express their feelings by pulling back a bit. They may be less engaged, drop down to ‘silent quitting’ where they do the barebones absolute minimum work required, or they may even do less than what they are expected even if this risks being fired.
3 How to Relate to other colleagues who stay
It can be awkward continuing to work in this tumultuous work context. Should you acknowledge that it is hard for you to work after what happened? An intersection that cannot be avoided is when the tasks of fired colleagues are taken over by others who stay. What is expected is to be ‘professional’ about it, and simply find the best way to get the work done, regardless of the context. Other things going on in the subtext are colleagues trying to guess about each other’s responses. Meaning, Colleague A is trying to figure out how Colleague B is feeling about the firings, and what her next move will be. Colleague B is trying to figure out the same about Colleague A. A main question here is whether or not to communicate openly with colleagues.
4 How to Relate to HR
HR may want to gauge the impact on employees who have not been fired, and get a sense of who is intended to leave shortly. Here the options are play ‘poker’ and pretend everything is dandy, or to be open with HR Representative whether or not the consequences may be to your benefit. Specifically, if you let them know you are jarred they may think you are looking for work, deem you a flight risk, and hesitate to put you into a position of greater responsibility.
Recap
Waves of firing are tumultuous and can impact even those who are not fired. Managers should not expect for all to stay on course of ‘business as usual’. since firings can erode the trust and dedication an employee has to her company. We have considered how those who are not fired can respond to various interfaces. The consequences on the organization can be significant.
Thank you for reading.
About this series
This is part of a series on Work Lessons based on my experiences.
About the author
I’m a UX Designer turned Product Manager, with experience in startups, freelance, and agile B2B2C companies. Writing helps me reflect & continuously learn. Connect with me on Twitter.
