Even though not every layoff “victim” may feel like a victim, learning about one’s impending layoff may be met with anger, humiliation, and a feeling that one is disposable. In some companies, the news is delivered in an unnecessarily careless and humiliating way. Ideally, layoff news should be delivered by showing compassion and respect to the employees. Here are some examples that miss the mark on this issue.
Escorted by security. It is common for organizations to have security presence during mass layoffs or when retaliation and aggression are expected, but should escorting employees to the exit be routine practice?
Organizations need to strike a balance between ensuring safety and showing compassion. A senior executive who was a long-time employee shared his experience: “I had to go down, grab some things quickly, and there was some security guards waiting. And then I got marched out of the building.
And I thought that was so demeaning…. And the thing that I did find humiliating, I had to ring up and ask permission to come back and collect all my stuff.”
Learning about it last. One employee reports that his company was conducting layoff meetings while outgoing voicemails of departing employees were being changed. An employee’s wife found out about the layoff of her husband from a voicemail message stating that the employee no longer worked there.
Mass announcements. Companies sometimes find it cumbersome to conduct one-on-one meetings with employees to be laid off and resort to mass announcements. Although this method is efficient, employees often find it disrespectful and unfair, especially when the announcement is not made in a face-to-face meeting. In one case, a Ford assembly plant in Chicago notified laid-off employees via an automated phone call on Halloween. Many employees thought it was a prank and showed up to work the next day, only to find that their ID badges had been disabled.60 Can you come back and teach us what you do? An employee who performed a task vital to the company’s operations was laid off. A few days later, she received a call from HR. Apparently, no one had realized how important her job was to the operations until after she was laid off. Would she consider coming back for a few days and teaching what she did to someone still employed in the company?

Questions 

1. What reasons can you think of to explain why employers chose to use what can be perceived as insensitive layoff announcements like those described here?
2. Find an example in the news or in the HR literature of a layoff that was handled with respect and compassion for the workers. Were there any problems nevertheless? What did the company do right, and what could have been done better?