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Rick Townley

“Don’t Walk Away Renee” – Survivor Syndrome in the Age of Downsizing


There has been a lot of discussion, even in this column, about the poor, tragic souls who have been laid off in the current recession and how their lives, hopes and aspirations have been brutally and mercilessly crushed under the jackboot of unbridled corporate greed and sanctioned by a corrupt and uncaring…ahem…well, you get the idea.

What about those left behind who were not laid off, or “riffed?” (RIF = reduction in force). What of these “survivors?” How are they doing? In some ways, workers who are let go are the lucky ones because they don’t have to take on triple and quadruple workloads for the same or less compensation, which is especially frustrating if the company is hovering over the drain.

According to HR (human resource) experts, survivors of rif’s suffer from a great deal of guilt after seeing their co-workers’ rounded up and sent off. We certainly have no doubts about the validity of HR claims, but just the same we decided to check with our rif survivor friend, Fred, whether he feels guilty. His response was “nope.” Then again Fred doesn’t have a great deal of contact with co-workers in his new position as night watchman. Previously he was the marketing vice president, but his firm had to  revamp after its primary product line became technologically obsolete. Fred was fortunate that senior executives were given training in alternative job skills rather than let go.

Whatever the situation with feelings of guilt, workers left behind do frequently feel demoralized. Again, HR experts say this is due to fear and despondency relating to psychological reactions to the downsizing itself – that workers must face the fragility of life and are perplexed by questions of their purpose in the universe. We are more perplexed by the answers than the questions. Fred told us that demoralization actually results more from the fact that those left behind now have considerably larger workloads for no additional pay. We called the HR departments of several large companies to verify that but were not able to get past the voicemail systems.

There are quite a few published articles available on how to motivate employees who remain after a downsizing. Ideas range from the more draconian use of whips and chains to regularly scheduled ice cream parties, but none seem to mention anything about adjusting workloads or avoiding 72-hour work weeks. Fred told us it’s common now to see people leaving the office as late as midnight taking work home with them. The days of 9-5 are truly gone.

However, the good news is that efforts to loosen up child labor laws are making some headway and there may soon be an influx of low-cost under-12 workers to help ease burgeoning workloads. We asked Fred why there were layoffs in the first place if there is still so much work to do, but he only gave us a blank stare in return. Apparently some inconvenient truths are imponderable even to a former vice president.

In general there seems to be a lot more information available about how to conduct a rif than to survive one. Fred was not able to provide any real insight into why, indicating only that he was never a CEO. We suspected he knew more about all that but he got a call on his walkie talkie to report to the HR office before we could ask another question. Just the same, here are a couple of suggestions for survivors that we’ve put together from several articles in the mainstream media:

  1. Be Proactive. Move right into the office if you have to. Be available and ready to help at all times. If your spouse complains, get a divorce. It was probably inevitable anyway so why risk a good job?

  2. Communicate. Talk to your boss as much as he or she can stand it. Learn key phrases like “yes, master” and “no, master.” Don’t get too carried away however. Titles like “your highness” and “your holiness” are usually reserved only for CEO’s and board members.

  3. Put an End to Complaining. If you see or hear others complaining or whining around the coffee machine, turn them in. Show management that you are loyal and above petty concerns about loss of pay or lack of sleep.

  4. Slow Down and Think. But don’t think too much and keep ideas to yourself unless you have a good one the boss can use with his name on it. Remember, your primary job is to keep the boss happy, or at least employed so he can keep you employed.

  5. Keep Your Resume Up-to-Date. No matter what you do to avoid it, if your number is up your number is up. Be prepared to get the boot at any time and remember that your value as an employee is rarely based on great performance more than a week old.

  6. If You’re a Contractor, Not a Regular Employee. Sorry, you’re on your own.

Note: A study of over 4,000 layoff survivors found that almost 75% admitted to a slowdown in personal productivity during and after the reduction. 7 in 10 felt their company’s products or services had declined after the layoff. A new research study by the Institute for Policy Studies reports that, since the start of the latest recession, CEO’s who laid off the most workers earned 42% more than the average compensation for chief executives of S&P 500 companies. The study also purports that 72% of layoffs were made at a time when companies were still reporting positive earnings, lending credence to the notion that some CEO’s might use layoffs to squeeze profits and sustain executive pay.

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