I think the kind of managers who would follow this advice (i.e., decent humans) would just figure it out the first time they scared somebody. Many/most don't give a crap, or can't even conceive of their underlings as humans.
There are plenty of decent human beings who may not be good at reading these cues, or may not relate to this kind of anxiety. Don't assume because someone needed to read this advice that they're not a good person.
Maybe, although I think many people who got scared by their boss would say "Whew, that's a relief, you scared me!" and that would be easily picked up on. But there are also definitely a ton of managers who are incapable of seeing people's emotions like this, or who just don't care.
You’ve just made me think about memories I’ve surpressed of a job I had, where the boss would hold Monday morning meetings every week to go around the table and get updates from the team. He took the opportunity to pick on someone different each time and rip them to shreds. It was a horrible thing to be part of. Needless to say my Sunday evenings were a write off during that period with the stress of having to go to…
What could compel someone to want to start their Monday morning that way?
Possibly similar behavior from higher ups. Or cargo-cult toughness.
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…
Quite a few US tech firms will also immediately walk the employee out of the building when the employee expresses their intention to resign, and a few will even preemptively fire you as you give your notice to avoid paying you for a 2 week notice period. I know folks who won't give notice when they resign anymore, because this has happened to them several times.
Name and shame them, please, this practice needs to be called out to prospective employees.
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.
Where I’ve worked what you’ve describing is called a reorganization.
Early 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…
I "over communicate" pretty much everything. I always give context, I provide links to any docs I mention, my meeting invites always have a description, agenda and goals, and I write more documentation than most devs. This is because I hate surprises and mysteries at work. I need to know what's going on to do good work, so I make sure no one has any excuse not to understand what things are about. I really wish more p…
I tend to be like that, but on the other hand I'm easily pissed off when someone will ask a question I already answered, like coming to a meeting and asking what the topic is or where they can find the documentation I provided in the invitation...
Basically I put a lot of efforts in sharing information and people say they didn't had it only because they didn't care about, I have a hard time accepting it. Moreover because it's always the same persons.
So, while I'm working on not overreacting in those kind of situations, I'm also accepting the fact that I can't make people care if they don't want to. The one who cares are thankful for the information. Those who don't, well, they don't.
Some weird behavior at my employer perhaps. We had several rounds of layoffs during my tenure and they were always announced at an all-hands meeting at 9 AM, announced the same morning. I still get nervous any time there’s a meeting called for 9. At least they had the good sense to not announce them for the next day.
Thursday, 10am: Company All-Hands. Scheduled at short notice. First 10 or 15 minutes is beating around the bush about how well things have been going, buuuuut.... Another 10 minutes of different leaders explaining how difficult the decision was, crocodile tears and all. Everyone, meanwhile, is waiting for leadership to stop wasting time and get to the point. If it wasn't obvious at the start, it would be crystal clea…
I had a similar experience where the entire marketing and BI teams (BI was part of marketing) were called into a meeting at short notice.
Everyone expecting layoffs or some such bad news. Turned out the guy heading up marketing was leaving, and ego being a thing, needed a platform to announce this.
This fricking act put unnecessary fear into folks with mortgages and kids, for absolutely no reason!
> When you’re communicating with your team, lead with context and reassurance. Never message someone on your team, “let’s talk when you get a minute”. That’s void of information and scary as heck! This should be engraved on a plaque in every office building.
Also your time is too important to be wasted by people who don’t come to meetings prepared.
A meeting without agendas or context are often wasted and longer than needed. I constantly remind anyone that I plan meetings with to let me know an agenda so I can bring solutions or useful information.
Sometimes preparation is nothing more than having time to think about a topic in advance.
The problem often stems from [easily distracted|poorly motivated|time poor] people using meetings as a way to force their attention to a topic.
I have a few clients who are so bad with this now that I simply decline their meetings and force them to collect their thoughts into email in their own time.
The base advice is absolutely sound. If you are leading, there is a stark difference between necessary ambiguity (which sometimes for regulatory or other conditional reasons may be needed) and just causing undue anxiety/harm through severe derpitude and lack of empathy for the intended audience.
I have seen situations where the person was immediately escorted out, but it was for competitive security purposes. They still got paid for their 2 weeks. That seems fine, if a little paranoid.
This seems normal for employees with privileged access. Give them a two week vacation on their way out.