I had a phone interview with a consulting firm in India that wanted some tips on dealing with layoff survivor sickness.  The person I talked to reminded me that, in many cases, we have stopped exporting jobs, and are now exporting layoffs.

 When US firms cut back offshore production, they export layoffs.  What I really found interesting was that in many parts of the world, the old psychological contract is alive and well.  People expect that the company will take care of them and are, thus, deeply organizationally codependent and susceptible to layoff survivor sickness.  Probably more so than in the US and Western Europe where the new psychological contract has been in effect longer and the culture is different than in high context countries.

 This has implications for US and Western firms attempting to manage a global workforce.  They need to develop strategies to deal with layoffs in countries that have deeply ingrained collective cultures that create an employee/employer dependency relationship

Businesses, too often, cut the wrong people.  The innovators, risk-takers, and non-conformists – those whose creativity is vital to organizational recovery – are usually not the most politically correct or supportive of old; overly bureaucratic, dysfunctional organizational cultures and are, therefore, usually the first to go. 

 In many organizations the survivors are those who are skilled at fitting-in, and are good at internal organizational politics.  This results in a double bind; those who stay are internally focused and risk-averse, and those who leave are picked because they didn’t fit in, when “fitting in” is exactly what organizations don’t need in order to rebound, be creative, and focus externally on serving customers.  When the recession ends, the least thing organizations require are risk-averse, internally focused, perpetuators of bureaucratic cultures.

 When things turn around, those employees who have options, have maintained their networks, and have transferable skills will leave if they are not treated right during times of layoffs.  Organizations need to re-recruit these valuable employees, let them know they are important to the future of the organization, and nurture them through this time of frustration and uncertainty.  If they don’t they will jump ship when things turn around, and organizations will be left with a work force of employees with no transferable skills who remain because they have no real external options.  This is a going out of business scenario that is all too real to many business organizations.

 Employees with layoff survivor sickness shut down and turn inward at a time when, in order for organizations to compete in a global market place, they need to open out, focus on customers and serving their needs.  Internally focused employees don’t serve customers, erode customer confidence, and harm businesses chances of recovery. 

 The trick is for organizations to wisely choose the keepers: those creative, customer focused, employees with valuable skills.  Once they make this choice, they need to work very hard to re-recruit them, assure them that unless there is a total catastrophe, they will remain, and harness their customer focus and innovation to lead them into recovery.

One major difference between this recession and those of the recent past is that layoffs are global and not restricted to just the private sector.  I recently wrote an article in Faith and Leadership a publication of Duke University’s leadership education function in their Divinity School.  It is appropriate for this audience because The need to help survivors overcome layoff survivor sickness is just as prevalent in the non-profit sector as in business organizations. 

 Religious institutions, too, are downsizing and when they do it often results in deeper survivor symptoms than in private industry.  This is because of a basic structural codependency. Employees of faith based organizations, administrative and clergy alike, define who they are by where they work, and when their job is threatened, their sense of purpose and relevance is also threatened.

 The key to breaking this codependent relationship is the same as for secular organizations.  Employees need to define who they are by what they do, not the specific organization in which they do it.  When a person looses their employment with a unit of a faith based organization, they do not loose their faith or their belief system.  They just loose a job.  It is as simple and complex as that!

In a recent issue of Investors Business Daily  I gave some tips on ways to heal the wounds and revitalize downsized organizations.  Some employees are doggedly hanging on, waiting until things turn around, ready to jump ship.  In an era of layoffs, there are some things companies should be doing to keep good employees once the economy rebounds.  Here are three things organizations can do now!

Engage in survivor team building.  There are two purposes (1) to build camaraderie so that when things turn around, employees are bound by the group and (2) to keep morale up during difficult times.  These can be “traditional,” organized by the company and professionally facilitated. I have found that when they are spontaneously developed by surviving employees themselves they can be much more fun and effective. Here are two examples:

1. A group of computer programmers formed “The Dead Career Society,” a take off of the film starring Robin Williams, “The Dead Poet Society.”  They had regular meetings, shared rumors, “war stories,” and productively vented their survivor emotions. They are a tight group and, unless one has an exceptional opportunity, they will probably stay in the same firm when things improve.
2. A group of HR people in Minnesota who survived several rounds of layoffs found an old duckboat – they were, after all, in Minnesota. They took it to an offsite retreat, put it on the lawn of the conference center, and crammed six people at a time – all the boat would hold – inside.  The remainder sat in a circle outside the boat. They all engaged in a spirited and sometimes physical – trying to pull people out of the boat – discussion.  The result was a much stronger team and the birth of the “We are all in the same boat – don’t forget to ‘duck’” metaphor.  Again, the group felt better and the members were able to be more productive in difficult times, and were also “bonded” so that they were attracted to the organization by their group affiliation and were less likely to leave.    

 Engage employees in formulating a short-term vision.  Most organizational visions are too long term to be of much use during layoffs and post-layoff trauma. I have helped several organizations form very short term visions such as completing projects by the end of the month or booking enough orders to make the quarterly numbers. The power of doing this is that it makes survivors feel part of the team and will help them want to stay when things improve. There are two important dimensions of short term visions:

1. Engage all employees in formulating the vision.  This gives them a badly needed sense of control and affiliation.
2. Celebrate achievements.  Even if the results do not meet expectations, declare victory and find something to celebrate. 

Train managers in helping skills.  Layoff survivors always say their “best bosses” are those who are able to form empathetic relationships, engage in non-judgmental listening, and replace controlling with coaching. Survivors who are helped through their survivor symptoms are grateful and are much more likely to remain when things turn around.

I recently did a healing the wounds session for an organization that had experienced a major downsizing. Layoffs involved about 20 percent of the workforce and most employees were suffering from the effects of layoff survivor sickness.

 One of the top managers was adamant that employees should be grateful they had kept their jobs and that they needed to “stop whining and bitching, suck it up, and get on with it.”   His colleagues violently disagreed with him and a good discussion ensued.  Since this reaction is not uncommon, it is important that change agents wanting to heal the wounds of layoffs have an answer. Here are the top three reasons why “sucking it up” is not a good strategy.

1.  Most layoff survivors have a toxic brew of productivity limiting emotions: a combination of fear, anxiety, anger, and depression. These are the symptoms of layoff survivor sickness.  Keeping these debilitating emotions inside will only result in worse symptoms. Some mental health professionals, for example, think that anger turned inward results in depression.
2. The healthiest way to get rid of layoff survivor symptoms is to externalize them; get them out.  The way to do this is healthy venting.  This involves verbalizing them, either to an individual or in a group setting.  This often requires some training for managers facilitating layoff survivor venting, or the use of a professional facilitator.
3. Repressed layoff survivor feelings result in a turning inward and a focus on self at the very time when organizations need them to be externally focused.  Organizations wanting to heal the wounds and rebound from the trauma of layoffs need to have employees who are focused externally on the customer.  Angry, anxious, self-absorbed, employees are not able to be innovative, creative, and customer focused.