From careerdiva.net. Italics mine.
It’s bad enough you have to deal with being laid off. But many of you are also dealing with, or may have to deal with, horribly stupid managers who somehow lost all their humanity and sense when they accepted the title of boss, aka, Pointy-Haired Boss.
This is how the layoffs worked at a colleague’s office yesterday:
After months of warnings that 10 percent of the workforce would be axed, “D” day came. One by one direct managers of doomed workers tapped their employees on the shoulder and escorted them to the human resources department. This was not done discretely. Given the open plan office, workers had to slowly walk by a sea of coworker desks. Everyone knew where the poor guy or gal was going, and many people kept their eyes down toward their desktops, fearful of catching their coworkers’ eyes.
My friend, who witnessed about 20 of these scenarios, called this “the walk of shame.”
She didn’t think it was shameful to be laid off, but she sensed a feeling of shame among these employees.
When the workers got to HR they were informed that their services were no longer needed. Many of these workers had been with this firm for over 25 years. An HR person told them what they were entitled to and then they were told to go pack up their desks and leave.
When they returned to their desks they found their computers had been turned off and their access to the company system terminated. (This is why I always tell workers to copy everything they need off of their computers, especially if you think layoffs are coming. You probably won’t get a chance to go back and get contacts, or other important info after you’ve been booted.)
This story makes my stomach turn. Prisoners on death row are treated better than this. No last meal for this pink-slipped lot. No priest, rabbi or imam to talk to.
After decades with a company, no manager came up with a plan to deal with this in a more humane way?
What was wrong with emailing a worker and asking them to come to your office idiot bosses? Take a moment to talk to them, tell them how much you valued their work. It wouldn’t kill you people to treat folks the way you’d want your kid, mom or best friend treated.
What do you think this does for employee morale at an office or factory? Isn’t stuff like this considered a no-no in your stupid-ass leadership books? (Seriously, there’s a best-selling business book called the “The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t”.)
Sorry for my tone of disgust. I can’t help it right now, because I’m disgusted.
Since there’s a good chance the idiot bosses won’t be reading my blog — unless all of you send them this post — you need to be ready, just in case your managers subscribe to the caveman-leadership school of thought.
If you have to take a “walk of shame” you need to first realize that this is happening because your managers are idiots.
After that, you have to keep a positive frame of mine.
I asked Terri Levine, a career coach and author of “Work Yourself Happy”, for some advice.
She offered some simple, common sense tidbits you guys should take to heart:
* Focus on thinking about what you did well at work.
* Think about this as an opportunity to allow a new door to open.
* Smile and think about what is working and how silly they are being.
* Know that anyone who treats an employee this way doesn’t deserve your skills and talents.
Mostly, feeeeeeeeeeeeeeel and think thoughts that don’t suck you into their behavior. For example: one of my clients thought about being home with her son soon and taking off panty hose and high heels… Another focused on being allowed out of “prison” and finding an employer that respected him.
Don’t think about your anger, don’t let them make you feel worthless.
You control your thoughts and what you think creates what you experience.
Sing a happy tune inside and move on!
OK, I know singing a happy tune may sound corny. But people, the way we make it through tough times in our lives is if we’re positive.
When I was laid off from a rinky dink trade magazine it was the best thing that could have happened. I was feeling pretty crummy but somehow convinced myself that being a sad sack would get me nowhere. Well, I actually was getting sick of bitching about the layoff injustice with some of my colleagues who were also laid off.
You can be angry for a short time, maybe a day or two, especially if your boss was a jerk when implementing the layoff, but like a wise man told me a while back, “anger only poisons the one who is angry.”
Let’s take a deep breath together and feel the career love. It’s out there. I promise.
Lurker
0 likes
