Gunnysacking is a term for storing up hurt feelings, anger, affronts, and unresolved conflicts, and, when the weight of the psychological gunnysack becomes too heavy to bear, unloading it, often to an inappropriate degree in an inappropriate context.  We all gunnysack to some extent but, most psychologically healthy people find ways to keep their bags relatively light.  Unfortunately, organizational leaders are not immune to gunnysacking. 

I have discovered that a surprising number operate for many years under the oppressive burden of a heavy bag and use a crisis mode of operation as an authorization to unleash long repressed feelings of anger and frustration by figuratively beating their fellow employees about the head with their overloaded gunnysacks.  In layoffs this takes the form of those in power “getting” both functions and people that frustrated them in the past but were protected by a more tolerant organizational culture.  A newly promoted general manager, for example, used the downsizing culture as a way to “get” some long term rivals in the marketing function. 

 Gunnysacking is unhealthy for both the leaders who practice it and for the prognosis of organizational survival.  Leaders who see it happening need to move quickly and stop it. They need to help those wielding those heavy bags find better ways to lighten them. If that won’t work, they need to carefully consider the costs in terms of productivity and morale, of retaining people who are more concerned with pursuing a personal vendetta than helping the organization recover.  If, in the heat of the battle for organizational survival, you are tempted to form a coalition to “get” a person or a function for the wrong reasons, resist it. It won’t help you, the person you are targeting, or, most importantly, the organization.  If you find yourself the victim of gunnysacking, don’t try to get even; that only compounds the problem.  Try to discover what past event lies unresolved in the other person’s bag and muster up the courage to directly confront the issue.  Gunnysacking is alive and well in today’s downsized organizations.  Effective leaders need to move rapidly to confront it and personally refuse to succumb to its temptations.

If the employees of shutting down organizations are like other layoff survivors  – and I think they are – they are dealing with some pretty productivity-hindering emotions such as anger, fear, and anxiety.  They may not express these feelings directly but they are there and taking a toll on their self-esteem, productivity and ability to focus on customer service.  So the first tip is to find ways to get them to externalize these debilitating emotions.  Things like facilitated venting sessions, one-on-one sessions with the boss, small group planning sessions really help and the boss does not have to be a shrink to facilitate them.  She or he may need some coaching or actual help from a qualified outsider.  These kinds of sessions really work and bosses are always surprised at the power of these kinds of sessions.

 Another process that I have seen work well in these kinds of situations is an honest, down and dirty, visioning session.  Visions don’t have to be grandiose or even overly positive.  The vision may be to simply keep the shop open for a few months.  The power of engaging employees in articulating a shared vision of the future is that it allows them to participate and gives them a sense of control. Participation and control are exceptionally important in times of crisis.

 A third “tip” is honest straight talk one-on-one with each employee.  Straight talk involves clarity on what the boss knows and what the boss does not know.  If it is clear that the person will eventually loose his or her job, they need to know this.  There is no evidence that prior notice results in sabotage and unproductive behavior. There is strong evidence that prior notice gives the employee control and most are appreciative of knowing and actually work hard. 

 In closings, future shutdowns, or when the prognosis for survival is unclear, I have found moving toward a contractual relationship with severance pay, performance standards, and the period of advance notice of possible termination clearly spelled out works exceptionally well.   

 pecial effort hast to be made to re-recruit and retain key players.  The best employees, those with options, will leave first unless they are handled very carefully.  Mechanisms such as retention bonuses, telling them that they will be the last to go if worse comes to worse, and involving them in planning and decision making work well.   

 Continual communication by the boss is essential.  This means being visible, managing by walking around, directly sharing what the boss knows and what the boss does not know, and any future plans.  Communication also means listening, being empathetic, and engaging in a helping, not a controlling relationships with employees.   “Sucking it up” and remaining emotionally detached is a very bad strategy for both employee retention and the bosses own survivor symptoms.   Engaging employees and soliciting their ideas as to how to generate new business and keep the dealership afloat creates a double win.  Employees feel involved and valued, and they often generate good ideas.

 Lastly, the boss himself needs to look in the mirror.  He needs to deal with his own anger and anxiety before he can be of help to his employees.  They will see right through him if he is faking it.  Cynicism, sarcasm – even veiled in humor – and apathy coming from the leader is toxic to organizational survival.  When I work with small businesses, I make very certain that the boss has taken sufficient time and is able to externalize her or his own survivor symptoms.  If they don’t there is not much hope for the employees.

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.

Wayne Turmel has a well known podcast show with the interesting title, “The Cranky Middle Manager.”  In my experience, middle managers today are very stressed and “cranky” is a mild adjective for their current state of mental health.  Wayne is a great interviewer and mixes humor with insight and useful content.

 My interview with Wayne just came out.  It covers a lot of what I’ve talked about in this blog in about 20 minutes.  Check it out Cranky Middle Manager Podcast  and pass it on to some of your own middle management friends.

There are two purposes for survivor team building: (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:

 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.

 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.

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.