3 ms·
> In the longer term: announce layoffs ahead of time. Ask if anyone wishes to take voluntary redundancy. In general, make sure people aren’t going to be totally
by mjr00 4y ago
> In the longer term: announce layoffs ahead of time. Ask if anyone wishes to take voluntary redundancy. In general, make sure people aren’t going to be totally blindsided by losing their job.
This isn't a great idea from a management perspective. The people who are willing to take severance voluntarily are the people who are most confident that they can find something else, which means they're the people you want to keep. It also assumes that layoffs are overall headcount reductions and not targeted in specific areas. For example with the Amazon layoffs, they wouldn't want people in AWS to leave since they're primarily targeting the Alexa/Echo divisions.
And if you went into Alexa/Echo and said "so we need to reduce headcount in Alexa/Echo, any volunteers?" you'd cause massive panic and distraction in that division.
- afavour 4y ago> This isn't a great idea from a management perspective. I know, I don't really care. It's more about caring on a human level.
- mjr00 4y agoManagement saying "we're going to announce layoffs in a month" means that in addition to the pain that comes with getting laid off, there's also an additional month prior to that where people are stuck in limbo, "am I safe? am I on the chopping block? Should I start job hunting?" And since you're still employed, you still have to do your normal full-time job for 40 hours a week, on top of searching for a new job. It'd be incredibly stressful. The reality is that there is no scenario where an employee who gets laid off will feel good about it. Getting a respectful, professional termination notice with generous severance is about as good as it gets.