Surviving the Economic Layoff “Creating the Psychological Healthy Workplace”

Many twists, turns, greed, and gratuitous corporate spending have caused the massive layoffs of 2008/2009. Leaders, as a result, have made and will continue to make organizational changes because of the economic downturn. This crisis has several resultant aspects: destruction and rebirth of business as we now know it, the emergence of a new type of leader, and the new strategies HR departments must now develop to deal with not only those being laid off, but also those surviving the layoffs.

This economic recession is like a forest fire. Forest fires are devastating, with death, tremendous destruction, exceptional pain, and massive costs. Going through a fire creates emotional upheaval because of loss of history, private belongings, and the sense of what was done and accumulated for years no longer has value. But a forest fire also clears away all the land’s old overgrown brush and debris that has stopped new growth from springing up. After a period of time, new growth begins to emerge from the cleared land. This rebirth creates a very lush, green covered ground. In the same way, people right now are caught in an emotional upheaval but what will result through all of the consolidation? How many jobs will be lost and business landmarks sold? The banking, financial, housing, and automotive industries are failed industries in the midst of their metaphorical forest fires. As in the past, we should be able to see a rebirth through business consolidation with new jobs being created as these new organizations become stronger. This economic forest fire has brought tremendous emotional pain, through this rebirth process; however, in two, three, or four years, we will see leaders emerge who are capable of dealing with the newly created business configurations. The consolidation of these organizations will give people the opportunity to look at business in a fresh way, creating novel enterprises, and innovative entrepreneurial possibilities, and through these possibilities, many people will be able to find and realign themselves with positions that will help them to grow and develop.

In order to be a beacon through the forest fire, new leaders, to be effective, will need to be leaders of hope. They must be visible, and must explain to people how to get through this crisis. They will have to be frank, transparent in their dealings, and creative. It is essential to help people understand that, while this is devastating, there is still a direction and a strategy of hope to survive. Leaders need to be communicators, be able to over share information, to go up and down through various levels within their organizations and communicate a message of direction, economic success, and business success. They will be required to help all levels of employees understand what the goals are for the next three to six months, what the possibilities are within a year, and what people will be doing, specifically by product and service. They will have to help people to know who will be involved, how the organization will be altered, how people will work together, and how consolidated jobs will be created and measured. Effective leaders will need to build an organizational strategy for approximately six months, beginning today, and continuing next week and the week after, repeating the cycle every week. It is practical and realist to focus on a six-month period of time, indicating that these are the kind of things that have to be done today and for the next six months. If accomplished, success will ensue. Leaders need to help people to know how they will be evaluated and how success is measured. They need to be able to communicate the what, who, when, and how of doing, and that the successes will be continually measured. People should put SMART (Specific, Measured, Action, Realistic, Time-bound) goals in place, making very specific measureable actions so that it will be evident as to whether they are on the track to success or not. Goals should be practical, realistic and put in a time frame. Leaders must have the leeway to go back and rethink in a very practical perspective what must be done now and how it must be accomplished. True leaders can be identified through their behaviors of listening, communicating, taking action, understanding the economic drivers and creating organizational passion. They understand the passion of people, they instill passion in people, and they help organizations to identify what there greatest strengths are. Right now, through this rebirth of organizations, leaders have a great opportunity to go back and find out what their greatest strengths are, communicate them daily, instill the confidence of strength in people, and lead people to utilize those organizational strengths to success. If leaders do that, they will be able to get through this chaotic forest fire. They need to understand where they presently are and the capabilities needed to move forward. Leaders cannot afford to take the easy way out: they need to refocus on those great strengths within an organization. The right questions need to be asked, such as what causes the success in an organization. Once identified, those causes should be communicated and driven through the entire organization. If leaders do that, employees will rally around them.

This crisis has been an extremely difficult and emotional time for the HR people who deliver the message to those being laid off and those staying. There is no logical, satisfying way for HR people to justify layoffs because currently, layoffs are happening to those who have “done nothing wrong” and in fact, have done everything right. However, HR people in organizations that are humanistic are doing some of the following things: 1) They are letting people know the possibility of layoffs in advance; 2) They are finding ways to support the employees, such as having them take classes on resume building and interviewing skills. 3) They are providing meetings for families to discuss how to deal with their money during a period when someone is laid off, or how to borrow. Unfortunately, most organizations today simply call people in, and in a very sterile and uncaring way, say “you have been laid off, security will walk you out, your computer has been locked, pick up your things, put them in a box, and leave.” This is what happens when organizations are led by people who lack integrity, insight, and the ability to create vision. If organizational leaders would take care of people through layoffs, the transition would be smoother, and the people actually having to deal with this would be better in the transition of change. It would not take a great deal of time for leaders to stop and reflect as to how they can humanistically lay people off.

People who have survived a layoff go through an emotional upheaval as well. In addition to guilt, the survivors find themselves with consolidated job responsibilities and an impossible workload. Leaders need to pull people together and communicate that many jobs have been consolidated. They need to let people know that they are in this together, are reorganizing and building a new work team that will now be responsible for heavier workloads; that no one has a defined area; and that they are going to be responsible for the work production as a team. It is not the time to talk about job descriptions, but rather focus on team responsibilities, how the team will work together, how it will get through this tumultuous period. There should not be any “I” statements, only “we” statements. The process should be one of a team that will accomplish the goal and do whatever it takes together. People will be drawn to inspirational leaders who are visible and courageous in leading.

Resilience is the ability to come back from a trauma. People will be resilient if they see hope, if they see people who are willing to work with them and help them in many ways. An opportunity is lost if leaders are not visible on a day-to-day basis. Imagine Ulysses S. Grant going to his troops and saying: “We are in a war for survival and it has been devastating. It has been a long war, hard fought and I know you all have made many personal sacrifices. I tell you what, I will be back in a year or so to see how things are going.” That is what many corporate leaders are doing through their silent and absent voices. Leaders need to be visible, inspirational and compassionate. They need to be out in front of their troops, leading them, communicating success and inspiring them to do more.

Companies that have failed need to acknowledge the organizational changes and the emotional stress on workers, risk creating an even greater mentally unhealthy and unproductive environment than that caused by the current economic crisis. Many people feel overwhelmed right now, but leaders can address these high levels of anxiety and stress by being aware and proactively addressing issues, thus creating psychologically healthy workplaces. Good leaders must continual give feedback, recognize high performance, let people know specifically what they are doing right, and in a very constructive caring, mentoring, coaching way, support people. The stock may have collapsed, but the morale of America doesn’t need to go with it. It is going to take a unified front for all to get through this. The next few months may be doom and gloom but the fire is out, and creating that team approach, helping people understand what it means to be resilient, and working together will produce the new growth.

We have seen the fire burn, smelled the smoke and are watching it fade out. We have taken a look at those who are leaving, those who are delivering the news of change, and those who have survived the layoffs. Now the cohesive glue of trust must be applied. This team approach of sharing information and pulling energies together is the right way to go through this economic, emotional, changing time. Leaders must now demonstrate quiet confidence in guiding organizations towards success.