Learnings from a Professional Divorce Doula — Layoffs because of a different strategy
Layoff post number two, keeping the good times rolling. This is post is focused on strategic redirect. I want to be really clear here, that many of the layoffs done with a strategic redirect in mind are done much more heartlessly and soulessly than layoffs that are about money. Examples of this are the layoffs by tech companies who over-hired during the pandemic because of demand and found themselves saying they couldn’t afford the growth — which is inaccurate they can — they could it just didn’t make AS much money for shareholders. I am specifically talking about having an institution who has spotted a need for change because future but not current viability is being threatened.
These are much harder layoffs because you have good people that worked hard but forces outside of your control make something untenable. OR the cultural rifts in the institution have brought its work to a standstill. Here are the four things that are important to keep in mind.
One, there has usually been a cultural push and pull around direction and some folks are pulling in one direction, others are pushing in another direction. These directions carry emotional weight and usually involve folks with expertise being sure this is the end of the institution period. In these occasions I believe it is deeply important to acknowledge what is happening. I find we don’t want to be honest in those moments and it creates the experience of gaslighting for those people. “We have been struggling over a strategic direction and we have made a choice. The choice will not be an easy one to hear but it is a definitive choice.” It doesn’t make folks any less mad but it clarifies that yes, what they think is happening is happening.
Two, I think we often don’t foreground these moments with our beliefs. I believe X, I believe Y. Is incredibly important to people. They may disagree with your beliefs but they benefit from knowing which beliefs created the rift or schism your are working to solve. It also makes clear to the people who stay what the beliefs are that undergird the changes you are making.
Three, in these moments, I really believe less than 12 weeks severance makes life unnecessarily harder for everyone. 12 weeks helps people recover from the ego bruising they just received. It respects their work and service. Differently from when money is the only mitigating factor — you are making a tradeoff between their immediate livelihoods and your strategic ability — that is DEEPLY painful and any departure packages should acknowledge that pain. The message you send to staff that stays is that no matter what — your institutional strategic needs will not easily dismiss the lives around you. It isn’t just a promise to the outgoing team, it is a promise to the team that stays.
Four, the team that stays should still get a choice about whether they remain. After the layoff, folks should get the benefit of thinking time and not being economically manipulated to stay. I realize the word economic manipulation must feel hard for some but I find in MRC’s you start to see all the ways in which a livelihood is dangled in the labor market as a manipulation/submission tool. We can be better then that.
