All dressed up with nowhere to go

Layoffs could be the worst collateral damage this recession

Manjari Raman

There is no doubt about it: bad times bring out the best in people. Out of the rubble of the World Trade Centre rose tales of bravery and love. Cubicles clearly housed compassion: story after story highlighted the special gestures colleagues made to each other even as they tried to run for their life. The man who refused to leave his co-worker in a wheelchair, the two who picked up a hurt colleague and carried her down flights of stairs, the group that got caught in the elevator and dug its way out with a squeegee. People, who perhaps barely traded tight smiles as they passed each other on the way to the coffee machine, chose to die for, and with each other.
There is no doubt about it: bad times bring out the beast in people. As the world economy settles into a recession, as companies across the globe tighten the girdle and as hundreds of employees everyday get fired, there are an equal number of horror stories on how badly layoffs are being handled as shares tumble down. Even as the traumatic pictures of the crash site rolled across CNN, an equally sad snapshot of a laid-off employee was posted on the Net on September 26.

Nate — we don’t know his second name — recognised that he would soon be laid off from Nortel Networks’ Santa Clara office. So on the dreaded day, he turned up at work dressed up as a clown, marched down to the Human Resources department and sat forlornly in front of the manager deputed to give him the bad news. Nate’s exit interview pictures were posted on the Net; his bravado underscored his pathos as he sat in his loud clown suit, a chalky white painted face with two black stars highlighting his sad eyes, a wide red painted grin in sharp contrast to his downturned mouth.

Why do you think Nate did that? What message was he sending his former employer? Just how high was his self esteem? How did the HR manager feel facing Nate? What did his colleagues feel? These questions are no-brainers but spend a moment thinking about them rather than reading the business news which baldly lists how well a company is going to do now that it has ‘slashed’, ‘cut’, ‘pruned’ its workforce.

Sometimes, it doesn’t need a building to bring the world crashing down around your ears: a pink slip, an e-mail, or a staff meeting can have the same effect. “You are laid-off.” That statement can bring the entire edifice of your life which you have slowly constructed from the time you left school, chose a career, found a life mate, and had children, crumbling down in a moment. All managements claim that layoffs are their worst moment; few realise that the impact for the person laid off is as catastrophic as the September 11 events.

Just as the New Yorkers who once worked in Lower Manhattan now have no place to go to work in, a laid off person suddenly finds on Monday morning that he is all dressed up with nowhere to go. Just as the health benefits, pension plans, savings, insurance, vacation budgets, suddenly ran dry for the attack victims, so does a laid off person’s financial lifeline gets yanked in a moment. And just as those who made it safely out of the towers are now unable to sleep due to the guilt of having survived, employees who are spared the lay offs struggle with survivor syndrome.

The only trouble is: you don’t see the smoke, dust, blood, tears and shock repeated again and again till you get sensitised to the trauma that has befallen the workforce. All too often, it’s a clumsy handshake and a severance package. Severance, did you say? Not a pretty word, is it? And the remaining employees are told to get back to business as usual.

Well, guess what? It never is. That’s a thought many companies need to hang on to as the post-September 11 scenario deepens the trough the global economy finds itself in. What was once restricted to the tech bubble is now spreading across verticals: travel, airlines, retail, exports, entertainment, and insurance. And while the first instinct for many companies will be to squeeze the wage bill, scour for every alternative before resorting to layoffs.

Check and recheck all non-wage expenses — office, administrative, travel — that might be cut to the bone. Explore the option that there might be full-time employees who would consider switching to part-time positions. Offer an extended leave of absence without pay to employees who might be interested in taking up the offer, and pursue family interests, further education, or retraining. Try to budget to continue at least health benefits to such employees and subsequently, to those laid off too. Freeze hiring in the hope that normal staff attrition would shrink the payroll. And last but not least, share your problems with your employees and allow them to come up with a humane, dignified solution to managing the wage bill.