(~4 minutes to read)
Prologue
This is something I wrote in 2003, when the company I was working for was about to go through another re-org (read “downsize”). I held onto the piece at the time, just in case I’d written it in a moment of ‘temporary insanity.’ A few weeks later, I decided that the insanity was obviously permanent and published it to the company’s “water cooler” forum, hoping that the Duke of Wellington’s famous quote—”Publish and be damned”—didn’t come true for me.
There’s very likely another round of layoffs happening soon in Calgary and elsewhere in the various oil patches of the world, and because this piece was so well received when it was written, I thought it would be helpful to a new audience.
Woe, Woe and Thrice Woe
Am I the only one in the company that feels “edgy”? Probably not, judging from the tone of some of the recent posts in the ‘cooler… So—am I the only one in the company that can’t wait for the carnage to happen and be over with?
I know “carnage” is a strong word, but all the usual words—layoff, downsize, smart-size, right-size, re-org (and others)—are all clichéd, and in any case don’t seem to convey the scale of the adjustment we’re being led to expect.
Two analogies spring to mind constantly.
Prepare to Be Bewilde’d
The first is where I think of us all as wildebeest grazing warily, knowing that the lions are out there somewhere, and that when they get hungry they’ll come and help themselves to supper. When they do, the wildebeest all run around panicking, trying not to end up as Leo’s (Leo—the lion…)supper.
Well, Leo eventually catches his kill and has his fill, and the lions and the wildebeest settle down to another period of uneasy co-existence… until the next time.
The analogy goes further, because eventually, all wildebeest get old and slow and (I guess) become (big) cat food—not many wild animals die of old age! So as I get older and slower (and I’m no spring chicken—or wildebeest—anymore) I personally expect more and more to “have a lion hanging off my derriere”…
Halfway House?
The other analogy is even more depressing. You know that place where people of some religious faiths believe we go while our lives are judged and our fates decided? To me, the whole building feels like that. People are gathered, not knowing which way they’re headed. They’re huddled in corners trying to guess what the decisions will be and when they’ll hear the decision that most directly affects their future, and wondering what ‘life’ will be like once their destination is chosen for them. Meanwhile it’s difficult for some people to think about or do anything else. Some feel that it’s not too late to affect the decisions, while others believe that the proverbial books are closed and the choice of destination for them is just a “bell curve thing” (for whom the bell curve tolls?)
It’s Life or Death Jim, but not as We Know It
While re-org decisions and announcements don’t affect our eternities (at least I hope they don’t!), the uncertainty and foreboding seem to be comparable. And while being laid off isn’t quite as bad as becoming cat food, it does have a dramatic effect on people’s lives. Even those who find work the following day/week will feel the hit that their ego takes. For those whose skill set is outdated, whose disillusionment with IT inhibits their enthusiasm, whose age (too young or too old) is an impediment to successful job-hunting, whose networking skills need “more bandwidth” or whose ability to cope with change is below average, redundancy can be devastating.
Traditionally, IT people tend to be “ISTJ”s or similar on the Myers-Briggs scale—not the ideal type to throw to the lions and expect them to put up a fight (metaphor slightly mixed, but just see if I care!). Fortunately, many younger IT bodies are breaking with that tradition…
So in the spirit of my 2003 performance objective (“Collaborate with other IT staff to increase IT’s component of Employee Engagement score…) I urge everyone to “graze contentedly”—i.e. get on with your work the best you can.
Layoffs are like other people’s behaviours—you can’t change them, but you do have control of how you handle them. Choose to handle the waiting and the outcome positively. Choose not to get personal in the water cooler, and choose to make the most of whatever destination fate has in store for you.
Nietzsche said, “What does not destroy me, makes me stronger,” although it’s often misquoted as “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”—a subtly different meaning.
In reference to the misquote; layoffs do not strike a mortal blow. Therefore, we will all come out of this stronger.
In reference to the original quote; choice and ultimate responsibility are in your own hands. You can choose to overcome the effects of this re-org (by planning for multiple outcomes) and be a stronger person for it, or you can choose to buckle and let it destroy you. The choice is binary—black and white.
The choice is yours.
(And I hope that my words don’t come back to bite me in the derriere.)
Epilogue
I survived that round, but my number came up in 2006. There have been many more rounds at that company since. When it was laying people off in December 2015, their spokesman introduced the world to the phrase “Workforce Adjustment Notification”—presumably the latest euphemism for layoff notice.
Your Turn
What have you done to help morale during a layoff season? How was it received? Do you have an unusual layoff story to share? Let me know by leaving a comment.