3 ms·
1. Layoff are rarely performance related. There is too much paperwork involved with performance related firings and layoffs happen so fast and so wide it's usua
by yardie 3y ago
1. Layoff are rarely performance related. There is too much paperwork involved with performance related firings and layoffs happen so fast and so wide it's usually done by lottery. You could be laid off for performance but no one is going to give you an honest answer either way. They still suck and you'll feel like you personally did something wrong. In the overall scheme of labor relations, it's not you it's federal law.
2. Yeah, so it made it a lot easier to network. I didn't have to schedule interviews clandestinely late at night, on lunch breaks, take time off. I could be out front about my objectives and be fully in charge of my career without worrying about blowback. 2 weeks of interview, 2 weeks of reference and background checks. I was collecting my next paycheck before unemployment even finished processing, LOL.
3. Layoffs aren't personal. They definitely can drive morale down for those that remain. And as soon as you have a steady, new job guess who start reaching out to you for referrals?
I wasn't laid off during the 2000s dot bomb, but I quit to finish school. I was not laid off during the 2009 GFC. I was definitely laid off during COVID19, because of COVID. At no point did I think it was even about me. It just sucks and those feelings of inadequacy are real. While my colleagues were feeling sorry for me I sent an email to every business card I've collected through the network events. I had 3 job offers by the 2nd week. You grow, get older, learn from your experience.
- Aloha 3y agoI work at a company where performing a RIF is the most common way to get rid of people who are not performing at their expected level of effectiveness - the company does not have any meaningful process internally to perform performance reviews under normal circumstances, but its 'known' even by non-management types, who is effective and efficient at their job, and who is not.
- yardie 3y agoIf you aren't measuring performance than it doesn't exist and doesn't matter. So all you have to rely on what it looks like and personal biases. Most companies don't want to or can't do the leg work for a legally compliant performance related firing. It's easier to bundle everyone into a giant RIF. The downside is the bad performers and the good performers don't get valuable feedback. Good workers assume they are in the former group which feeds their paranoia.
- Aloha 3y agoNot all jobs can performance be measured in concrete statistics. We've had some really likable good guys who just couldn't keep up either technically or functionally, and it's obvious to everyone around, even if no deadlines are missed, and margins are met.
- bmj 3y agoThere is too much paperwork involved with performance related firings and layoffs happen so fast and so wide it's usually done by lottery. Can confirm this. My employer dropped about 10% of staff in order to back fill those positions with contractors from low-cost centers (India, Hungary, Costa Rica). Managers were not consulted in the decisions, and simply told they were losing employees $x, $y, and $z.