The Big Tech companies have been in the news lately, after announcing record numbers of layoffs. The Chartr graph below shows the tens of thousands of layoffs at Facebook/Meta, Google/Alphabet, and Microsoft. Only Apple has kept their employee ranks whole.
Google was heavily criticized for the way they handled their layoffs. They sent out "best wishes in your future endeavors" emails to 12K employees in the middle of the night. Some employees didn't even get their notice before they lost access to company email.
Responding to the ridiculousness, a woman named Jen Hogan (a business consultant in Asheville NC), shared her experience recently with Delta Airlines. The post went viral on LinkedIn and showed how layoffs might be handled in the future …
In 2020 I left Delta Air Lines along with 14,999 people. They looked for volunteers. Not ONE person was involuntarily severed. They presented us with an attractive package and left us to make our own choices.
They celebrated the people who took the offer. They THANKED them for saving the airline. They consider them alumni, and even created a community for them
They got their cost savings. They also showed grace and compassion and humanity. So it is possible.
I've seen companies handle layoffs well and companies handle layoffs poorly. Just a few months before I walked away from my final job, my MegaCorp was going through layoffs. I asked if folks could "volunteer" for a package, but was told that the company "reserved the right" to pick who was let go, not the other way around.
Since I was getting ready to walk out on my own anyway, I would have gladly taken a package at that point. Two other people on my team likely would have, too. We talked about it.
Instead, the company let three other employees go - and then saw the three of us leave in the next 6 months. Six employees were lost, in total - some with significant experience. I'm thinking that didn't help MegaCorp as much as they thought it was going to. (Although the layoffs continued after we we had all departed).
What has been your experience with layoffs? How should companies approach it differently?
Image: Pixabay; Chart: Chartr
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