Layoffs Are Hard, But They Don't Have to Be Cruel

If there’s one emotional lesson that a global pandemic should have taught us, it is that empathy for our fellow humans is a non-negotiable skill. Appreciating the thoughts and emotions of individuals in circumstances that are different from our own has the potential to dramatically (and positively) shape our assumptions, our decisions and our behaviors. Be it a global pandemic or a corporate layoff, appreciating the impact on another person takes purposeful effort and compassion. In the world of layoffs, that sense of relatedness applies both to those exiting as well as those staying with the firm. 

HR's Due Diligence

Central to a poor employee experience is the over-rotation to protecting the firm. Of course, caring for the enterprise comes first. Work is not a democracy and it’s not your family. When asked to describe their approach to layoffs, I suspect most organizations are paying attention to the right things. The criteria — on paper — make sense: fair, equitable, legally defensible, financially viable. The drivers behind these criteria are predominantly legal and finance, and HR serves as a guide and ultimately, a messenger.

The process falls short when HR doesn’t put the same energy and commitment into caring for employees as their peers in legal and finance do when caring for the enterprise. This work is not mutually exclusive. This is a “yes, and ...” moment for sure. Legal: please make sure we do what is legal, moral and ethical. Finance: please keep us viable and able to operate as a going-forward concern. 

However, when layoffs are managed as a risk mitigation exercise, employees inevitably experience organization behavior that is absent empathy. Below is the list of signals I shared last month that indicate your layoffs are being mismanaged.

Do any of these layoff descriptors sound familiar?

• Notifications were sudden and unexpected.
• Meaningful context was not shared to understand “why.”
• Decision processes lacked transparency.
• Colleagues were rapidly disconnected, both interpersonally and technologically.
• Little or no time was given to transition work responsibilities.
• Rumors accelerated in lieu of purposeful communications.
• Managers were given zero opportunity to brief their team of their own exit.
• Exiting colleagues were not encouraged to apply for existing, open roles.
• Leaders avoided direct conversations and seemingly disappeared.
• Peers attempted to fill the awkward gap by expressing sympathy.
• Remaining colleagues were left wondering “Am I next?”

When these conditions exist, they signal that empathy — an essential ingredient in design thinking — is likely not a priority for your organization. “Execution” (pardon the ironic word choice) becomes paramount. Employees perceive leadership to be circling the proverbial wagons and protecting the firm from those people. Turn off their access. Cut them out of meetings. Ignore their communications. Put them on “garden leave” until they are officially terminated. Minimize their severance.

If I were in legal or finance, I’d probably think, “All this makes sense to me.” 

Related Article: Survivor's Guilt and Other Ways Layoffs Impact the Employees Left Behind

HR Professionals, Where Are We? 

If you’re not in the midst of a layoff, it’s the perfect time to design what you’d like the future employee experience to be if and when such a time arises. Of course, legal and finance will continue to drive their requirements — as they should. For HR, here’s a list of ways to get started:

Additional Perspective

Jamil Zaki Ph.D. is an associate professor, Department of Psychology at Stanford University. He is the director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab and the Stanford Psychology One Program, as well as the author of "The War for Kindness."

In The Threepenny Opera, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht writes, "first a full stomach, then ethics." A lot of people might say the same about empathy —people’s ability to share, understand and care about others’ emotions. I have studied empathy for nearly two decades and regularly train leaders and managers to connect more effectively. A common response I hear is that empathy is a sort of psychological luxury. When a company is flush, people can afford to care about one another. When things are difficult, leaders must make hard choices, such as laying off members of their workforce. That, in turn, means shutting down our empathy. In interviews with dozens of managers, psychologists have found that about half purposefully try to act with less humanity and emotion while delivering bad news.

This instinct turns out to be almost entirely backwards. In life and work, empathy is most important during difficult moments. When leaders forget this, they pay a steep cost. In an analysis of nearly 1,000 laid off employees, researchers found that people who felt their managers lacked compassion during the process were more likely to consider and carry out wrongful termination lawsuits. The damage spreads as well, as “survivors” who are not laid off express lower commitment to their jobs and organization if layoffs are handled in a callous or unjust way — exactly as Mary describes in this piece.   

Layoffs have cast a shadow over the nation’s workforce for years now. But there is a thin silver lining to their cloud: difficult moments can also be a chance to assert an organization’s deepest values and connections. Managers should consider training in compassionate communication, which can both decrease the emotional pain caused by layoffs and their organizational fallout. Senior leaders should practice the principles of procedural justice: being as transparent about their layoff processes as legally possible. These practices humanize one of work’s most difficult moments, giving people respect as they exit and making those who stay less likely to start looking for the door themselves.

1. Organize an employee design committee to inform how to build empathy into your layoff processes. This is a high context dialogue, so be transparent with your colleagues about the value to the employees as well as the organization. Start from the outside-in by envisioning the narrative you want your employees to share about their experience if they exit or if they stay. Leverage the descriptors list above as a starting point for discussion.
2. Develop personas that represent the major needs of your workforce. Knowing the characteristics and demographics of your colleagues will help you generate ideas and meaningful ways to demonstrate empathy. Pay particular attention to the drivers of their financial needs and career stages. Your colleagues will want to manage what they perceive to be reputational damage, so help them create a more positive narrative.
3. Build an employee communications playbook. So many of the issues that undermine the employee experience during layoffs stem from inadequate communications. Start with your audience analysis, focusing on what they need to know, when and in what sequence. This should include the employees exiting, all people leaders, employees who will remain with the firm, and your HR leaders/Business Partners.

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