Redundancy Sucks

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C’est la vie.

Once again the prospect of streamling costs will bring about the need to say goodbye to staff. Redundancy programmes are fraught with stress and if you are the boss telling staff they are listed, then you feel like the harbinger of death. And this sucks. Big time.

There are prescribed ways to tell your staff member that their job is at risk. While I know that I should concur with management’s dictates and follow the script, I cannot. The scripts I have seen are patronising and in my opinion this is one occassion where patronisation is the last thing your staff need from you.

I’ve even made myself redundant before. And that was like committing suicide. I had to call in the liquidators after the FD ran away and the MD hit maximum uselessness and could not utter any instructions or lead the start-up aged just 7 months, out of the dwang. But the time comes when you realise that there is no way to save the company from going down and the need to call it quits has arrived. So I made the call.

Following my experiences with my start-up colleagues I decided that there is no good way you can dress up bad news. And it is best to get the bad news out first rather than pussyfooting around waiting for an ideal opportunity to present itself. There never is a good time to tell someone that they just lost their job. So do it there and then in as gentle a tone as you can without falling into melodramatic colapsing into tears, vocal fades and hushed tones.

Just lower the volume a tad and speak confidently and clearly. You staffer needs to be told what the reduction in force programme entails so is relying on you more now than ever.

Your confidence must ooze through and it helps make a bad time ever so slightly easier. Not better. I express my confidence in the persons skills and character. I also guide them to openings in other departments that are not impacted by the need to reduce headcount. I also tout them proactively around the company and use my network to try get them into an interview where their particular skill will benefit the other department or outside company.

This is the very least I can do for a person whose time, efforts and skills have helped me succeed at my job.

Redundancy Sucks