The economy storm survivors

I've recently experienced being near a layoff for the second time in my career. And in neither of those, I had a full experience, but it is still a bad enough experience.

The first one, I had to "enjoy" a party while mentally preparing a speech for the next day to fire the whole staff. At 5 pm that day, an email came through that changed the entire scenario, and we didn't close. I still think that the party was utterly unnecessary and should have been canceled, but it is a common trend to hide the nasty bits until the last possible moment. If no one knows, it never happened.

This second time was, again, not a full experience for me as I was kept in the dark until the very exact moment it happened. And is this part that compelled me to write this blog post, both as a healing mechanism (this week my psychotherapist wasn't available, so she'll know about all this after this post goes out) and as a way to think about what makes it so hard (other than the obvious).

Before I continue, I'll add some context in case someone is reading this a long time after I wrote it. On Feb 2023 and earlier, many companies were doing layoffs, from the big ones like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to the small ones like Mattermost. This comes from a change in the expectations for the market; in 2021-2022, the expectations were huge growth everywhere, and people were like crazy hiring, but suddenly it all changed, and the expectations are a crash and a very long recovery curve (more than a year, in some conversations more than two). That means that boards (you know: your CEO's bosses) are going to make it hard to get money from them and are going to demand more.

I haven't really understood what these downturns mean and where those signals come from. Economy fortune-telling is a complex craft, even when trying to back it up with data from markets and all that. Also, I'm not good at finances, and I know it, so I just have to trust that they try their best.

Given the above, I don't think there is actual malice in most cases where layoffs happen. It is something really difficult to do, and not even a chance of making it feel right for any of the affected parties. But we should try really hard. It is a tough moment for all unless you don't have the most basic empathy skill. But I digress a bit, and I'm not interested in the party who makes the decision; they are basically hard-pressed to cut costs or to show some action towards that. Whether that's an effective strategy, I will say little (but I have my doubts).

My interest lies in the people who suffer the layoff, both those who leave and those who stay. It all comes as a shock, as it is rarely announced before the moment, and people feel as if a high treason crime was committed. Essentially a trusted subject has just disappeared, no more safe ground to step on, and any plans disappear.

As I said, I've never been on the side that leaves, I'm on the "survivor" side, but that is exactly it; it feels like surviving for another round but without safeties. Most of the people I've talked to are fearing a second layoff. This might or not happen, but given that trust has evaporated, no words can calm that feeling, and the only thing to do is to wait.

If you ask me, companies should be as transparent as they can before the layoffs. I know! Not everything can be shared, but many things can. And, of course, some people will leave, but by not telling them that doesn't mean they'll stick around. It is a more challenging talk, as people will have many questions that will go unanswered. But it should be far more effective in the long run, as they won't have their belief in the organization shattered. They'll be able to trust messages coming from the company.

No matter what side of the layoff you are on: I'm sorry that it happened, and I hope we've learned to do better in the next round (yes, there will be more in this and other companies, given enough time)

Takeaways:

• Be as kind and honest with the rest of the company as possible.
• Don't play the blame game, most likely you are blaming the wrong person
• There is no right way to lay off many people.