Some managers fear “softness” and have an aversion to any employee whining and bitching. They are wrong. Without the healthy externalization of layoff induced anger, fear, and anxiety, employees will remain crippled by layoff survivor sickness. In fact, research shows their symptoms will get worse.
It is essential that managers lead the way in establishing organizationally sanctioned processes that facilitate the venting of repressed feelings and emotions. Healthy venting is a necessary means to the end of moving employees back to productivity.
Another common wrong strategy is the myth that, in tough times, the most effective managers “suck it up,” are tough minded, brutally honest, and don’t tolerate “touchy-feely” distractions.
“Sucking it up” is precisely the wrong strategy for dealing with downsizing, change, and transition. It is a defense mechanism – a form of evasion that anchors behavior in the past and prevents productive engagement.
Management in the post-layoff environment is a helping, not a controlling relationship, and requires reaching out, not closing down and hiding behind a facade of toughness and control. Honesty grounded in a helping orientation is an absolute necessity. Honesty grounded in “brutality” may help the manager vent his or her own anger, but it will ultimately harm the manager, the employee, and the organization.
