Unless it's an actual hard conversation and you're not allowed to talk about it without HR present. Those are great fun...
Don’t be spooky
171–180 of 228 posts
Re: Don’t be spooky
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another way of doing it is on the Daily Standup, when the topic moves on to Anything else?
Most managers I've had appreciate being told individually. If there's any chance at all you'd take a counter offer, you should let management know privately. Theyre less likely to counter if you're news is known publicly. (Imo never take a counter but always listen to one. That's valuable market information)
6 years later and I definitely regret taking a counter offer.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#173The way I see it, if "let's talk when you get a minute" comes across as spooky that means you already have a communication breakdown and mistrust has already blossomed. Here's a slightly different scenario: You have a disagreement with management; there are many subsequent conversations happening behind the scenes; but no one keeps you in the loop or updates you on what is being decided. In that situation, practicall…
Nah, different levels of trust are a thing but it doesn't solve spookiness. People will, rationally, think about the range of possibilities for what you might want to talk about, and if you leave that range as "absolutely anything" it includes bad news.
Right now, it also complicates things that so much communication is over toneless chat or email; something that's clumsily worded or just brief can come across a lot worse than it was meant.
Years back, I was entirely remote my first year at the job. When I finally went to a work retreat I was shocked how nice people were to me. For the whole year I'd thought no one liked me and I was on the verge of being fired! (Also, no one's faces looked how I had guessed from their voices on conference calls :D)
Re: Don’t be spooky
#174I work for a major consulting firm and so very few things spook me. However, there is one phone number in my phone associated with no name. That number has called me exactly twice. She's not the same as the guy with the cigarette in the old X-Files show but she's not far off either hah. Both times, i had to physically sit down and swallow hard before answering. ugh, i don't even like thinking about it.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#175The only time I do this is with good news, and over time that's become known. I will over explain and give clear heads up about bad news, so the difference is clear. Similar to YC accepting people via phone call and rejecting via email, you know what you expect either way. Knowing what to expect either way and conistency are the most important elements of this.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I'm a little confused. This whole thread implies that in the States you get laid off and ushered out of the building on the same day? Is that common practice? I understand that most(?) Of the US is an "at will" jurisdiction, but where I'm from all employment contracts have a notice period in them. So when employment is terminated, by either party, there is a 2-4 week period where the employee works out their notic…
Many years ago I worked at a company that had many rounds of RIF (reductions in force). We always did them on Friday - people would be called in for their exit interview and IT removed their access while it happened. We were based in the US but had offices in the UK. Because of labor laws in the UK, HR did everything they could to avoid laying off the UK office staff because the process and cost was prohibitive. We k…
Completely true about the UK part. We have colleague that is slacking off for last 6 months (after furlough) and management is not doing anything as process is quite complicated. We are all waiting as he has some plans to leave in mid Jan to do MBA.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dunno, as a European that sounds absolutely mental to me. How about transfer of knowledge and ownership of projects?
In the USA a layoff is usually a euphemism for termination with cause that can’t be supported in court. Because of the general litigiousness and at-will nature of most employment contracts here it usually means the employer offers a token severance payment in exchange for signing a general release.
Every layoff I've been subject to (four of them) involved a large number of people, and were related to declining business or transfer of business activity to another division. And my last layoff resulted in a significant severance package. Not sure the claim of "usually" can be substantiated.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#178I once had a coworker message me out of the blue asking if I'd be available to chat later that day. I said sure, thinking he'd follow up with the topic of the chat, but he just sent me a non-descriptive calendar invite. I didn't want to sound paranoid so I didn't ask (I should have), but in my head I was racking my brain for any possible reason he could want to talk to me one-on-one. I was pretty new to the company at the time so I was worried I'd done something wrong, but I couldn't think of anything so serious that he would need to schedule a chat about it and also he wasn't really my superior so that would have been really strange. I decided to just try not to worry about it.
In the end, it turned out he was leaving the company and wanted to tell his fellow engineers one by one. It was sweet and the secretiveness made sense in that context, but it did leave me a bit spooked.
Conversely, during a one-on-one my supervisor ended our small talk with, "So I have something a bit more serious that I want to talk about..." immediately followed by, "--it's nothing bad!" So luckily he was a bit better about not being spooky. Turned out they were promoting me.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#179Early in my career I got a Monday morning meeting invite on a Friday afternoon just after I left the office. The meeting was called “The future of “ Entire weekend was a write off. I was so anxious. And yep. They shut down the unit (but I got to keep my job). As a result this is forefront in my mind as a manager. One thing that works great is whenever I ask questions about something, anything, I also say “this is on…
Isn't there an unwritten rule about layoff timing that it's always on a Friday? Always do layoffs on Fridays so people have time on the weekend to calm down instead of going postal?
I know anecdata is worthless, but we're coming up on the anniversary of my latest layoff so it's still fresh in my mind. It was Nov. 9, a Monday. And of course I wasn't alone.
Going postal wasn't an option, everybody was working remote. I had to bring my work computer back to the office, and I had less hassle than I expected getting access to my desk to pack my personal belongings.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#180Most of the time you get pressure from upper management to do layoffs or firings (or even random communication like promotions!) in a certain way. Part of being a good manager is pushing back on your boss and treating your employees with the respect they give the company.