Just came back from my YOGA GYM class. I am feeling relaxed and very clear-minded. My immediate thoughts still reel around what happened at my workplace yesterday. One moment we were speeding through, trying to get a Release completed; the next moment we came to a grinding halt as we hit a resounding barrier that stalled us from 60mph to ZERO in no time.

Some of you – who have worked in New England in the early 90’s – may remember the Cabletron episode. One morning, at their head-office workplace a block of employees were asked to ‘mandatorily’ get into a bus and go to another HR facility, with some pretext of signing missing paperwork in their personal files. After the bus exited, the rest of the employees were asked to assemble in a conference room – and informed that a RIF was in process. The bus scenic travel set of employees were being laid off as their meeting progressed – and they were unaffected.

Fast-forward to 2022. Since our RIF was at a much larger scale, the process was reversed and in line with current technology – no buses, all online. All affected folks got a ‘mandatory meeting’ attendance invite, the day before. As soon as the meeting started, we were informed of our new termination status and that HR would be contacting us soon, etc… In the spate of a few hours, all of us got the termination letters and we were disconnected from the Company network.

To be fair, the writing was on “all the walls” everywhere about 4 weeks ago, when we were informed of a ‘strategic direction change’. No one should have been surprised. What was surprising for me – and I have been laid off before, on 3 occasions in my 45 years – was the impersonal sanitary approach in which this was done. I have gone through this at Cascade Communications, Motorola, and Cisco – and in every case, I had a one-on-one with my Manager and I was very professionally/respectfully treated. In this case, there was a ‘clinical’ announcement by HR on the call that we were all terminated and should get the letters by e-mail very soon. All the great talk about Servant Leaders, transparency, team empathy, and employee caring – was nowhere in sight. Multitudes of younger employees on work visas were numbed and concerned – will our dreams come crashing down? More senior experienced employees were more prepared, although concerned about finding the right opportunity, without uprooting their personal lives.

I completely understand that no law (I am referring to the law-of-the land and not morality and ethics here) was broken and everything was done as per the US/NH labor laws etc. Our laws say that we are all ‘employees at will’ and either side can decide to part ways within the allowed notice periods, anytime – no questions asked.

Let us rise above that and recognize that the ‘workplace’ is the 2nd home for most/all of us. We all have a work-home and a family-home. Show me the parents who wake up one morning and tell all their children to get out of their home, give them a few days of food and money – and say, go fend for yourself. Most/All parents are continuously focused on meeting both ends, cutting their cloth to size and ensuring their family unit is taken care of – through thick and thin.

Why should the work-parents be any different? They too need to focus on ensuring they have a thriving work-family by ensuring long-term success and not short-term victories. Take a look at my publication 5 years ago Layoffs – where I dwell in much more detail on entities responsible for causing RIFs and – who actually feels the brunt of the end results.

The cause of a RIF/Layoff is quickly out-of-sight and forgotten – and the effect stays on for months, tearing apart people’s lives, friendships, and work relationships nurtured over time. I understand that course correction/tweaks will result in frequent (every few years) small RIFs, dictated by business changes. Dramatic RIFs – shutting down completely, causes far-reaching effects to folks who are NOT RESPONSIBLE for it and far removed, to even do anything to prevent it.

What are your options at this stage, if you are affected…. As I have posted in an earlier blog Embracing Change, — when you land up in a situation you have no control over, accept it as karma, learn from it and move on…… The sun will always rise tomorrow.