Dealing with Layoffs

I am no stranger to layoffs.

In my decade long career, every company I have been at has had some sort of layoff, reduction in workforce, corporate restructuring, and/or employee terminations. Different from a faceless corporate environment, most of the time these were people I knew. Maybe I knew their kids’ name(s), how they met their spouse, or what challenges they were facing at a point in time. We’d grab dinner or commiserate over some recent crazy work project at a water cooler conversation. These were people I had some sort of bond with, some deep, some shallow, but nevertheless, they were people I cared for.

Founders are Humans Too

During the early days of my career, I would some times show up to work wondering if I would be on the chopping block that day. I used to wonder why companies had to layoff people. Why can’t they just be better at not hiring? or hiring the right people?

Now, I know that founders and leaders are also human. They make mistakes. Layoffs are corrections for some of their mistakes. Some times those mistakes are forgivable, like a lack of foresight into macro economic conditions or unrealistic optimism about the company’s future. Some times those mistakes are unforgivable, and someone has to come in to clean up the mess. Some times those mistakes were beyond their control, like an organization that has grown too big with too many areas to oversee.

No one is omnipotent. Even the most formidable or wisest of leaders can falter. Some leaders are primed to succeed in uncertain times who can balance strategic risk taking with conservative protection measures. Some leaders can win by riding the tide or when risking it all is the right gamble to make. Yet what makes those leaders successful at one point can also make them fail at others.

A founder once asked rhetorically, “Aren’t there any great companies out there?” The real answer is that companies, like nations, can be brilliant and great for a period of time. None of those empires, whether they are corporations or kingdoms, have lasted forever. Even Rome fell after a millennia let alone a multi-national corporation. Naturally, there are few leaders who can compare to Caesar.

A Second Chance

Layoffs are necessary. They give companies a chance to correct from a past wrong, and to buy the company a chance to succeed, no matter how slim. Layoffs mean a new beginning for those who remain, no matter how painful.

Having been a part of some of those decision making conversations, I better understand these decisions now. However, it nevertheless weighs heavily on me. Even now as a bystander, it is difficult to watch layoff or reduction in force events unfold, as I think it does to the founders and leadership team that made those decisions, if they at all care, and I believe most do. Most poignantly, I remember a dear friend once saying after orchestrating a multi-thousand persons layoff: “It’s hard not to feel like a bad person.”

Yet we some times forget, that same person also saved thousands of other people their jobs by turning around the corporation. They did the best they could given the hand they were given. Sometimes that hand was one of their own making, but sometimes it’s an unfortunate situation they inherited. In either case, their most imminent goal is to give the company a chance to survive, to start again, and to muster up the morale of those who remain to keep fighting.

Keep on Moving

Where does that leave everyone who got left behind? Some people will move on to better days. I’ve known people who were collecting severance while earning income from a new job. Some will struggle. There will be people who will have plowed right through their severance package without a new job prospect, an emergency fund, and a backup plan. How each person does depends on their own capabilities, planning, and factors beyond their control. My dad always said, “Whether or not you succeed in life is one part fate, one part circumstances, and one part your own efforts.” We can only do the best we can and hope that one other part falls into place. Two of three parts is usually enough to lead a good life.

The most important part is to not despair, and to give some grace to yourself and others during such trying times. All we can do is keep on moving. If we keep working, learning, and trying to better our circumstances, then opportunities can come up at unexpected times to allow us to turnaround the situation. A layoff isn’t the end of the line. It’s a chance to start over.

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