I was recently by Total Picture Radio.  I never now how these will come off, but the Total Picture Radio Podcast helps frame the issues and solutions.  It is a good way to learn about how to help heal the wounds both for yourself and for your organization.

 Two other good perspectives can be found on the CNBC Guest Blog I wrote for them and on the article featuring my work on Monster.com

 These media releases can be helpful in communicating to managers and others who need to be enlisted in the process of revitalizing downsized organizations.  Check them out and pass them on to others interested in revitalizing downsized organizations

I came up with the concept of organizational codependence as a way to conceptualize an unhealthy dependency relationship with one company.  If your social, emotional, and identity capital are all stored in the company vault, you are organizationally codependent. Said more simply, if who you are is where you work, there is a lot more at risk than just a paycheck if your job is threatened.  Take the susceptibility to organizational codependency questionnaire to see how you stack up.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Susceptibility to Organizational Codependence Index

1=Almost all/to a great degree

2=Most/to a large degree

3=Some/to an average degree

4=A few/to a slight degree

5=Very few/to an insignificant degree

1.    How much of my social life revolves around my business and organizational affiliation?

1     2     3     4     5

2.    How many of my friends are part of my organizational affiliation?

1     2     3     4     5

3.    To what degree are my recreational interests (golf, tennis, travel etc.) associated with my business or organizational affiliation?

1     2     3     4     5

4.    To what degree is my sense of purpose, relevance, importance associated with my title, level, and organizational affiliation?

 1     2     3     4     5

5.  How organizationally specific are my skills and how difficult would it be to transfer them to another organization?

  1     2     3     4     5

6.  What would be the impact on my self-esteem if I lost my job tomorrow?

 1     2     3     4     5   

7.  Do what degree are my support systems (people and resources that can help me through difficult times) centered on my organizational affiliation?

1     2     3     4    5

8.  To what degree is my job the center of my life?

1     2     3     4     5

9.  My spouse or significant other thinks I invest too much of my social and emotional life in my job.

1      2     3     4     5 

10. Who and what I am is where I work.

1     2     3     4      5

Total__________

10 – 25 High Risk

25 – 35 Moderate Risk

35 – 50 Low Risk

Pay attention to items evaluated as 1 & 2

I just returned from a week in New York.  There is lots of interest in Healing the Wounds among the press and from those who have experienced layoffs.  There seems to be a paradox: some economists are saying the recession is over but unemployment keeps going up – New York is now above 10%.  I think what’s happening is that organizations are getting comfortable with doing more with less and the trend of people as costs to be reduced as opposed to long term assets to be developed is starting to sink in.  One media event took be to Wall Street.  I hadn’t been there since 9/11 and it is a pretty depressing scene.  Guards and barriers around the stock exchange, and a guy with a sandwich board showing his resume and asking someone to give him a job

The lead “manifesto” in the September issue of Change This Change This is my piece, “Breaking Organizational Codependence: Downsizing’s Liberating Wake-Up Call.”   Breaking organizational codependence  This is a very helpful piece on the heavy price employees pay for a codependent relationship with their organization.  Change this does a great job with graphics and layout, but what is particularly useful in this article is the inclusion of a self-assessment instrument that gives those who complete it an assessment of the degree of their susceptibility to a codependent organizational relationship. Click on the link to take the “Susceptibility to Organizational Codependence Questionnaire.”

If who you are is where you work, there is a lot more at stake than a paycheck when you are threatened by a layoff.  It’s not just your job that’s vulnerable; it’s your self-esteem, identity, sense of relevance, and purpose. The human resource strategies of tying employees in for the long term that evolved during times of stability and predictability have very bad unintended consequences in today’s epidemic of downsizing. We were seduced into a codependent relationship with our employers.  Organizations provided trinkets – key chains, bracelets, watches – to celebrate tenure.  Benefits, services, office size, parking spaces, all rewarded longevity. Recreational activities, group travel discounts, and employee clubs and associations served to channel employees’ social patterns into organizationally sanctioned outlets. The result is that many employees have put all of their social and emotional eggs in the organizational basket, and as the new short-term psychological employment contract between employer and employee unfolds, the basket has been dropped causing the classic survivor symptoms – anger, guilt, fear, anxiety – and triggering codependent behavior – control and manipulation.

The media is beginning to show a lot of interest in layoffs and how do deal with those who remain – the survivors.  Last week, I was interviewed by the Fox Business network.  Click on the link to see it.  Fox TV Interview   It was remote and I was stuck in a hot closet with just a chair and a camera with no visual reference and some confusing cross-talk between the producer and the camera crew so it came off a bit stiff.  Nonetheless, it got the message out.

 There are several other media contacts in the works, and I’ll post them as they come along.  This media interest is a clue to the importance of working to heal the wounds and get organizations and individuals back on track

I recently conducted an informal survey within one organization concerning perceptions of the “deal” – the psychological employment contract. 

 I asked professional, non supervisory employees, and most of them said the deal was to work hard, gain transferable skills, and be ready to move to a new organization when the time came because they were convinced it would come for almost everyone.  

 I asked middle managers and they were confused.  They didn’t know what the “deal” was but the majority said that it was different than when they came to the organization and it certainly was not life-time employment but they were not sure what it really was.  They were defiantly uncomfortable with employees being loyal to their work and profession but not necessary the company but they didn’t have any concrete options.

 I asked the CEO who had been there 35 years.  He said that entry level professionals should work hard, be loyal to the company, not network externally for jobs, and despite the current economic downturn, the company would find ways to take care of good, loyal, hard working employees.  

 So there you have a snapshot of what’s going on.  Different levels and different organizational cultures have very different perceptions of the psychological contract and often send out mixed messages.  So what is your perception of “the deal?”