Planning and Managing Layoffs
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Planning and Managing Layoffs
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Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#2This is a phenomenally good resource for the topic, as both someone who has had to perform layoffs and who has been let go myself.
Highly recommend reading in its entirety, and saving for the unpleasant day you need it (which, unfortunately, might be soon).
Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#3Man that was very, very useful advice.
Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#4Just ruminating here, but I didn’t fully understand the hesitance to do paycuts. Of course, I understand that in some cases the financial problem is severe enough that layoffs are the only option. But it’s conceivable that in many cases a simple, say, 20% cut to salaries across the board could be enough to tip the balance.
Some employees will immediately start looking for another job, but that seems totally fine and reasonable to me, both for the employee and the employer. They get to retain most of their income and all their benefits while doing so, and if they do leave successfully that just saves you more money too.
With all of that said, it does occur to me that with small startups there just may not be enough employees for paycuts to help much. The above is really written with 100+ person companies in mind I suppose.
Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#5This is extremely useful and well done, easily the best resource for layoffs I've ever seen. I really like that it doesn't hold back.
> Maybe they will return to a home country with alternative healthcare options
Wow, that's calling it what it is.
Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#6Just ruminating here, but I didn’t fully understand the hesitance to do paycuts. Of course, I understand that in some cases the financial problem is severe enough that layoffs are the only option. But it’s conceivable that in many cases a simple, say, 20% cut to salaries across the board could be enough to tip the balance. Some employees will immediately start looking for another job, but that seems totally fine and…
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Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#7Just ruminating here, but I didn’t fully understand the hesitance to do paycuts. Of course, I understand that in some cases the financial problem is severe enough that layoffs are the only option. But it’s conceivable that in many cases a simple, say, 20% cut to salaries across the board could be enough to tip the balance. Some employees will immediately start looking for another job, but that seems totally fine and…
Maybe they wanted to do layoff sone employees even before this pandemic. The current situation is convenient for them to do so.
Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#8Just ruminating here, but I didn’t fully understand the hesitance to do paycuts. Of course, I understand that in some cases the financial problem is severe enough that layoffs are the only option. But it’s conceivable that in many cases a simple, say, 20% cut to salaries across the board could be enough to tip the balance. Some employees will immediately start looking for another job, but that seems totally fine and…
Like you point out in your second paragraph, some percentage of employees are automatically going to start looking for a new job and treat their 80% salary as a severance package. Being in a competitive job market, this is going to be pretty much every above-average employee at your company. With layoffs the company gets to choose who gets impacted, and the process is immediate rather than drawn-out.
The reality is that too many VC funded companies hire too eagerly and can operate perfectly fine (in some cases better) with a smaller, more focused workforce.
There is no coming back from a major across-the-board paycut, which is why no company chooses that option.
BTW your question is answered in the last paragraph of the article.
Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#9As someone who was lucky enough to graduate right into the last recession, I highly empathize with the class of 2020, it is going to be rough for everyone, but especially them. Over a decade later, and only recently have I felt like I was finding my footing career-wise. And now we're all in for another ride.
I barely managed to land a job after graduating, made almost no money, got laid off, and the company collapsed shortly thereafter anyway. One thing missing from this article is that often times these layoffs don't happen in a vacuum — Even I, a fresh grad, knew my employer was in trouble — and that a layoff would be coming, which helped blunt the news when the actual layoff happened. This was only possible because my previous employer was transparent about the situation, and I was already pretty deep into my job search by the time the layoff happened. To this day I am appreciative about that, even if the end result was the same, and it took me a few months to land a great gig after that.
Graduating into a recession + getting laid off so early in my career has irreversibly changed my risk profile, and I refuse to work with a company that isn't transparent about its going concern.
Re: Planning and Managing Layoffs
#10Just ruminating here, but I didn’t fully understand the hesitance to do paycuts. Of course, I understand that in some cases the financial problem is severe enough that layoffs are the only option. But it’s conceivable that in many cases a simple, say, 20% cut to salaries across the board could be enough to tip the balance. Some employees will immediately start looking for another job, but that seems totally fine and…
Like you point out in your second paragraph, some percentage of employees are automatically going to start looking for a new job and treat their 80% salary as a severance package. Being in a competitive job market, this is going to be pretty much every above-average employee at your company. With layoffs the company gets to choose who gets impacted, and the process is immediate rather than drawn-out. The reality is t…
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