Passion, Creativity, and Commitment After a Layoff
Following an employee layoff, tapping the passion, creativity, and commitment of the remaining employees is critical to a successful future. Your role as a survivor is to contribute to ensure that success.
The tendency of employees in a post-layoff workplace is to hunker down to fly under the radar and avoid being noticed. This stymies creativity, risk taking, and forward movement. This is exactly the opposite of what your company needs from you now.
With fewer employees, a quieter workplace, and the emotional trauma of the layoffs, it is tough to rally the remaining troops to contribute on the level necessary to avoid additional layoffs. Yet, this is exactly what employees need to do. Step up, increase creativity, pay attention to the company mission and vision, and contribute your best efforts and ideas.
More Work Remains for the Layoff Survivors
In a layoff, more work remains for the employees who survive the cuts. The people who were laid off leave their whole job for others to accomplish. That is just the way it is. Failure to recognize this is like the ostrich with his head in the sand. No amount of hiding will make this fact go away. The best approach to divvying up the missing coworker’s work is to meet as a team or departmental work group with your manager to determine what must be accomplished for customers.
You can’t accomplish everything your coworker was contributing so your own job might substantially change. You may need to eliminate the components that don’t directly serve your internal or external customers. An approach, during this discussion, that emphasizes continuous process improvement will best serve the layoff survivors. Fewer steps and less time invested in the remaining elements of departmental work processes will streamline work and eliminate unnecessary steps. But, sometimes more is needed.
Consider Restructuring Your Organization in the Aftermath of Layoffs
Accomplishing the work may mean restructuring your organization. Perhaps the initial plans for restructuring were made by management before the layoffs. In fact, these plans often determine who is laid off.
If not, now may be an opportune time to determine that advertising, marketing, and public relations, as an example, belong under the same umbrella. Hopefully, in your role in your organization, you will have the opportunity to affect the portions of the work flow that affect your job. If you’re not asked by your manager, ask to participate. This is critical for your commitment and motivation as your organization moves on from the layoffs
Studies by Anne C. Erlebach, Norman E. Amundson, William A. Borgen, and Sharalyn Jordan indicate that grieving coworkers were reassured when they were allowed to participate in the restructuring process. They were more committed to the organization’s moving forward to new success.
The same study indicated that, "Survivors were critical of aspects of the process that seemed counter-productive, wasteful of resources, or unfair." Make the restructuring and reorganizing a win for everyone. Ask to be part of the process.
Layoffs are never a positive experience. You lose cherished coworkers, your workload may increase, tension is palpable in the workplace, and you experience a range of emotions that are painful and disorienting. I trust that these ideas will help you weather the experience.
Please share your tips for dealing with the loss of laid off coworkers.
