Axed in a Flash: Surviving Life After Layoffs

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5641/whats_wrong_with_layoffs_in_america/

Wednesday March 3 12:17 pm

By Stephen Franklin

A friend got axed the other day, whacked after more than a dozen years on the job.

Years of working with his head to the grindstone. No time to answer phone calls or e-mails. And with every cutback, he picked up more of the slack because he was the boss.

But when folks talked about him getting axed, they didn’t talk so much about how hard he had worked. They talked instead about how when the company let him go, it didn’t even give him time to say goodbye to his workers. He was out in a flash, they said.


Members of United Steelworkers of America Local Union 1190 listen during a union meeting in May 2009 in Steubenville, Ohio. Of more than 1,500 working members, all but around 200 have been laid off from the Severstal Wheeling Steel Mill. (Photo by Rick Gershon/Getty Images)


"Can you imagine that?", they asked, "after all those years?" Trouble is, I can imagine it, and bet you can too. As the Great Recession sits stuck atop the U.S. economy, there are no signs that corporate America has either called a halt to layoffs, or taken up the human resources mantra that there should be a humane way to shove workers out the door.

It’s not a new mantra at all. For decades now, folks who study the way companies work have told us that poorly thought-out layoffs leave the surviving workers demoralized, frozen with fears for their own futures, and send workplace quality and performance ratings plummeting.

And that’s why I was surprised somewhat by a recent Newsweek cover story. Called “Lay Off the Layoffs,” it recited the not-so-new wisdom that layoffs hurt often more than they help, especially cold-blooded whackings that leave an indelible stain on company morale.

FULL story at link.

[Warpy]

1. Studies done since the 80s have shown conclusively

that the companies that axed workers (usually to boost the stock price temporarily so the CEO could cash in) did much poorly over the long term than companies that went into short term negative cash flow in order to keep their workers.

Still, short sighted and greedy upper management continue to pad those stock options by screwing with the company workforce, as brutally and with as little regard for the human beings involved as possible.

With every unnecessary layoff, employee resentment grows. It's no wonder productivity and quality are suffering.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. 1,000 words