• If you are serving people you don't like to be with and are not getting paid, that is insanity.
• If you are serving people you enjoy being with but are not getting paid, that is give-back.
• If you are serving people you don't like to be with but are getting paid, that is work.
• If you are serving people you enjoy being with and are getting paid, that is fun.
- ¬ Larry Stybel, Stybel Peabody Lincolnshire -
Yes, businesses are still freaking out and sending notices of staff stripping leaving only the tired and angry behind. When it comes time to build the business back up I wonder who will be hired - the untrained and the inexperienced to a great degree. What are the chances that these employees are going to contribute heavily to the productivity level and company profits? While I have only interviewed lay-off causalities in the fields of software sales and banking to date, I believe their perspectives to be very representational across a wide swath of industries.
So let’s take a look at what happens with lay-offs or even just the threat of lay-offs. Every employee of every business other than a sheltered workshop (they have iPhones too) knows that the Economy is ailing and no one is spending money which makes matters worse for the bottom line. Lay-offitis is much like a contagious disease, everyone worrying if they will come down with it next. All levels of management take to acting “funny.” Employees flock to various gossip web sites to find out the latest murmurings. Nobody can actually put their finger on it but something is amiss and the atmosphere has changed. Humbly, I know nothing of chemistry or physics but I sure know when the energy of a place has taken a nosedive or is on high alert. Most humans in the workplace can detect such changes. People may look busy but they thinking: “should I be scared, worried, threatened or stay in deep denial?” This state of high anxiety can go on for weeks before any hint is given to the rank and file, the drones that support the company’s basic structure. Finally, on a Friday afternoon some overpaid executive will drop a bomb about can’t-be-avoided lay-offs and cloak it in a veil of equality with that completely dishonest BS about “we’ll all get through this together.” Possibly, but drone will be on-line applying for a claim and overpaid boss won’t. What rankles the laid-off employee most? The knowledge that those in charge weren’t honest enough to give staff a “heads up” six weeks ago when maybe they could have at least looked around for then job openings or taken that week of vacation still due them from 2008. Meanwhile, overpaid boss is also trying to rationalize his/her own value to the company and board of directors. But, what’s with the big secret? Why can’t employees be advised early of the delicate financial position of their employer? Every company’s website brags about their firm’s commitment to transparency in communications but few will adhere to that notion when the earned bucks are tighter.
Back to Black Friday afternoon…the axe just fell and there is blood but perhaps not too much at this point. Those who aren’t dazedly limping out to their means of transport are gossiping up a storm at the local T.G.I.F. (or the W Hotel for the super-sized talents). There are also some who with a dark heart, decide not to leave with nothing to show for their time under overpaid boss. Hmm, what to take…such panoply of choices…lists – files – documents of all shapes, sizes and confidentiality levels. How about going to the various venting web-sites and entering juicy office gossip or better yet, proprietary information? That’ll show ‘em! Perhaps short-lived and about as smart as shooting oneself in the foot, but pay back can feel good and is so easy to rationalize.
What’s an employer to do? Well, for starters let’s rewind just a bit to 2009 BL (before layoff-itis) and look at the Policies and Procedures. Yes folks, it is the Big P&P of Prevention, that little booklet (it does not have to be a tome) outlining how a business keeps itself safe and its information secure. Everybody received and signed one and as they boarded the corporate ship. Yet, when was the last time anyone even consulted the P&P, monitored its enforcement or amended any changes? Didn’t Marilyn used to do that…or was it Jason? They are both gone now and the memos outlining mandated updates have piled up in her/his old office. Knowing the P&P, evaluating if they are at all relevant and enforcing them in a timely fashion could cut short the evil deeds of some recently laid off employees. The external, unbiased investigator to the rescue!
As a final thought, none the new bare-bones staff had time for an H1N1 flu shot …oh oh.
