PLANNING A LAY-OFF: A New Paradigm Model

By Anne Merkel, Ph.D.

Record numbers of workers have been laid off by US companies, large and small, in the last couple of years. Some organizations see a re-organization or merger/acquisition coming, while others make the decision only when downsizing becomes a necessity. In any case lay-offs are usually painful for all concerned.

After the Fact

Management spends time, energy, and money to nurture, train, support employees, then there comes a need for letting these colleagues, friends, “dependents” go. This can take its toll on the strongest leader. Many top managers develop “CEO Depression” as a result of laying off some subordinates and then needing to face the survivors. The symptoms range from psychological and emotional stress to physical disability and mental breakdown. (Several articles have appeared about this syndrome in Spring/Summer, 2003, issues of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.)

Another group highly affected by lay-offs are the survivors who often feel guilty that their friends are gone and they were spared. They daily face fear that they will be the next to be laid off. They realize that this situation is out of their control and this creates a strong level of stress. Whether they are over-achievers with seniority or low-productivity “newbies”, they still may be laid off in the next wave. Nothing they do will change this. They have more work to do, lower morale, and they lose all trust in management.

The laid-off employees obviously feel various emotions: guilt, shame, fear, anger, stress, frustration, hopelessness, anxiety, lack of self-worth, relief that it finally happened, etc. Some people deny what they feel and in so doing, postpone the grieving process, which hurts their ability to re-claim their lives and move onward. By putting off the grieving and ignoring emotions there is not enough focused energy to support a full-powered job campaign. Often these people who don’t deal with their trauma take years to get a new position or they might become under-employed by accepting a lower level position than they want and deserve just because they fear that they aren’t worthy or able to get any higher level position. (Of course, present economic conditions impact this job-search situation, with current jobless statistics at record highs. However, personal power and clear, uninhibited focus and drive make a difference in candidates and their ability to obtain new positions worthy of their qualifications.) So, what can be done after the fact to deal with resulting symptoms of a lay-off? Executive Coaching, Stress Management counseling, career and employee support groups, outplacement services for those laid off, and team-building for survivors all can help after a lay-off. [See the Services section of this website for more information.]

A New Approach

What if there could be a way to allow down-sizing to be less traumatic for all concerned?

I used to tell managers that as long as they “kept their finger on the pulse” of their organization, employees, and growth and development of both, that they might escape future re-engineering hassles. Today even well-run, forward-thinking organizations are often forced to initiate and experience down-sizing.

There IS a way that these and other caring and conscious organizations can approach and move through the process of laying off employees with less pain and suffering by all concerned.

Imagine an organization working as usual and due to various circumstances head-count must be lowered. (Often processes are dropped, divisions are consolidated, plant sizes are adjusted based on customer trends, changing technology, supplier issues, product changes, etc.)

As soon as management gets the word or makes the decision to lower numbers they call all employees together and share the bad news. To keep this move from becoming an instant morale-killer, immediately following this information session another longer meeting of ALL employees is scheduled… this can be done in partial employee groups if on-going production will not permit all employees to attend together.

The follow-up meeting to include ALL employees (in one large or several smaller groups) is where the organization, using ALL of its resources, will plan HOW to lower the organization’s head-count. The process is carefully facilitated Open Space Technology. (A facsimile of this process is not good enough, as we are dealing here with important and emotional life decisions for all involved.)

Utilizing the power of cross-functional groups, the empowerment of including ALL personnel, the openness of allowing ALL topics to surface, and a practical and experienced facilitator to keep it flowing and allow for ALL players to participate, from CEO to part-time, temporary employees, a plan can emerge.

Open Space Technology allows the people to come together, (as many or few as are to be affected) with the shared purpose of focusing on the theme of “LOWERING HEADCOUNT FOR THE ORGANIZATION”. When this cross-functional group of all levels connects, the meeting agenda is created (at the beginning and through-out the meeting) to include the topics that need to be surfaced in order to:

• allow people to share their fears
• discuss related issues
• brainstorm solutions
• discuss possible scenarios for the future
• allow for creative problem-solving
• enable those wishing to shift positions or leave to suggest these options
• form task forces with champions to lead them
• design plans
• estimate time-tables and budgets
• suggest, discuss, test alternative new models for re-organization
• create final action plans with the task forces to implement them

The process of doing this is pro-active rather than re-active. The results are more productive and positive than traditional methods of orchestrating a lay-off, and the following often occur:

• the people who leave have wanted to go elsewhere anyway and this allows them to do it in a positive way where everyone wins
• job-sharing options are designed with alternative scheduling implemented
• cross-training for new processes is more widely and openly accepted
• stronger bonding of workers at all levels into teams
• continued and strengthened trust in management and its processes
• more buy-in to the down-sizing plan that is agreed upon
• employees getting ready to leave can begin a job-search with assistance
• the grieving process can be supported for ALL employees internally while the process is being implemented, thus keeping productivity up and oftentimes eliminating the need for later counseling and support groups for managers, survivors, those laid off
• the full team stands behind the planning and implementation which allows for smoother transition

Organizational re-structuring with the need to down-size is here to stay. How we handle the planning and implementation of the process is unique to each culture, with some solutions causing more problems than those that they solve. I urge managers who read this article to dare to choose this different, more positive model, if a lay-off situation is on your horizon. You won’t be sorry.

There are groups world-wide who have implemented Open Space Technology for such sensitive matters as re-organizing and implementing a lay-off. For more information please contact The Ariela Group at merakel@arielagroup.com or refer to the Links page for further world-wide contacts and information about Open Space Technology and its uses.