Layoffs: An Eroded Social Contract, a Taboo Culture, and a Lack of Empathy
For most of the 20th century, there was an implicit social contract between companies and their workers of a company’s responsibility to maintain its workers’ employment, whereby mass layoffs were “a sign of corporate failure and a violation of acceptable business behavior” as author Louis Uchitelle described in his book The Disposable American. It was not until the 1980’s when GE chairman Jack Welch began popularizing and normalizing the idea of mass layoffs as a sign of corporate competitiveness.
In the past decade, companies have adopted numerous innovative talent initiatives across every part of their employee lifecycle to begin adapting to the future of work. Recruiting processes have been revamped and optimized to ensure a positive experience for even rejected candidates, as leaders have understood the lasting impact the experience can have on the company’s brand perception. Investments in employee perks and benefits have skyrocketed as companies have understood the tangible implications on employee satisfaction, productivity, and engagement. And corporate learning solutions have been at the forefront of boardroom agendas as executives grapple with the need to equip employees with the skillsets of tomorrow.
But even the most innovative and future-focused companies who have re-imagined every other aspect of the talent function almost never mention layoffs, even though they are a reality in every one of their businesses.
For too long, layoffs have been too taboo to discuss. Personally, laid off workers often feel lonely, ashamed, and stigmatized, putting an undue burden of responsibility on their own shoulders even when a decision to restructure the business or a shock from an event like COVID-19 had nothing to do with their performance.
When asked about rethinking layoffs, Zabeen Hirji, former CHRO of Royal Bank of Canada and Deloitte’s Executive Advisor on Future of Work says “Unlike other parts of the talent and skills agenda, most executives have not personally experienced layoffs and perhaps the missing piece in this puzzle is empathy.”
But despite its taboo history and the lack of empathy that some may have for the experience of a laid off worker, all business leaders must grapple with the fact that layoffs may increase in the coming years and it will be their choice if they continue layoffs in their current destructive form.
It is far past due that we talk about layoffs, about the deep impact they have on people, their families, our businesses, and our communities and begin the work of reimagining them as we have with every other element of the employee lifecycle.