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By Rob Enderle for TechNewsWorld
With the advent of AI and rapidly changing corporate needs and performance, many companies have announced layoffs this year, and I expect we are far from done. These layoffs range in size from small, like eBay’s announcement of 1,000 layoffs, to the much larger 12,000-plus layoffs expected from Dell and Intel, among others.
Regardless of the size of the layoff, employees face difficult and unexpected choices. Making the wrong decision could not only end your career but also lead to legal trouble if you act impulsively without considering the risks.
Let’s discuss layoffs this week, and I’ll close with my Product of the Week: a new head-mounted display from Goovis that could be useful for those of us who watch TV in bed and aren’t quite ready to quit when our spouses want to call it a night.
There is an art to layoffs of which most companies seem unaware.
The first big layoff I experienced was at IBM under Louis Gerstner. What made it better than most was that the employees who were to be laid off were called to a meeting. While at the meeting, their personal effects were gathered and sent to a remote office facility where they had three months to find another job either inside IBM or outside. During that time, they continued to receive full salaries and benefits. Their only job for that period of time was to find new employment, and most did.
That approach helped eliminate some typical problems with layoffs, including employees acting out, the low morale associated with blending people whose jobs were safe with those being asked to leave, and helping assure the employees who were laid off didn’t subsequently act out against IBM.
This last is important when you consider that, a few years later, another computer company didn’t do this. One of the terminated employees ended up as a buyer for that firm’s largest retail channel and terminated the contract, effectively forcing the firm to be sold to a competitor due to lost revenue.
Under CEO Carley Fiorina, HP handled a layoff very poorly. It didn’t take care of the laid-off employees well. During the layoff, it bought new corporate jets and publicly increased Fiorina’s compensation, which really upset not only those who were laid off but also the remaining employees.
Fiorina later ran for office in California and lost by the number of people she’d laid off and their immediate families, suggesting she paid dearly for mistreating her people.
How a company executes a layoff tells you much about what executive management thinks of its employees. Companies with CEOs who handle layoffs poorly should be avoided, as these leaders tend to prioritize their own compensation over the well-being of employees, stockholders, and customers. Poorly executed layoffs put all three at risk.
Laid-off employees must make choices, some of which are problematic. An unfortunate number of employees will choose to act out with behavior ranging from badmouthing their firm, stealing company property, or, in one case, where a CIO was laid off, erasing the firm’s databases (he went to jail).
Some terminated employees resort to violence, which is never acceptable. The worst case of this was the 1974 Borax layoff and strike where the local town and company went to war. Helicopters were shot down, managers were buried up to their necks in ant hills, and ex-military personnel were hired to fight off the angry, terminated employees.
I was briefed by one of the ex-Ranger security teams, and it sounded like a war zone, showcasing that things can go very badly when you piss off a lot of folks. Fortunately, this is rare, but when it does happen, it can be catastrophic. That scenario was part of my training, and the stories were truly frightening.
What employees need to remember is that you can make things worse. Acting out, especially with violence, can lead to legal jeopardy and render you unemployable. That behavior won’t hurt the employer so much as it will hurt you and those close to you.
Read the rest of the article to gather the best way to handle layoffs and if it is easier to find a new job before you or after you're laid off: Layoff Survival Guide: Making Smart Choices in Tough Times
About the Author:
Rob Enderle is the president and principal analyst at the Enderle Group, where he provides regional and global companies with guidance on how to create a credible dialogue with the market, target customer needs, create new business opportunities, anticipate technology changes, select vendors and products, and practice zero-dollar marketing. You can reach the author via email.
