He doesn't feel the least bit grateful for the opportunity to keep his position. On the contrary, he's frustrated, mad and resentful about being forced to do twice the work for the same amount of money.
The marketing director for a television station feels the same way. She lost half her staff to layoffs, and her workload tripled overnight. While she doesn't feel she has the luxury to quit, she doesn't have the heart to do the work, either.
It doesn't help that both these professionals also feel they no longer have a voice in what happens in their departments. Such an outlook can wreak havoc on your motivation. A once-energetic and enthusiastic manager can easily become the classic employee who shows up to collect a paycheck but doesn't want to do the work.
Anxiety Rules
Playing musical chairs probably made you anxious when you were a kid. It's 10 times worse now, when the last chair represents a spot on your employer's payroll.
Between 1980 and 1987, Fortune 500 companies eliminated 3.1 million jobs. And that was just the beginning. Every year since 1988, at least one-third (and often half) of all large and mid-size companies have pared their workforces - sometimes more than once.
Most surviving employees express overwhelmingly negative feelings about the changes that occur in the wake of a downsizing. As Groucho Marx said: "Whatever it is, I'm against it!" David Noer, vice president of training and education for the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina, and author of Healing Wounds (1993, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass), uses a metaphor of surviving children to illustrate the conflicts experienced by employees who remain in a downsized workforce.
Imagine a family that's been together for a long time. The loving parents and well-behaved children live in a nurturing, trusting environment. Then, one morning at breakfast, the mother makes an announcement. After reviewing the family budget, she and the father have come to realize that they can't afford to feed and clothe all four of their children. Two of them will have to go.
Nothing personal, the father explains. They still love their kids. They just can't afford them anymore.
The next morning at breakfast, two of the chairs have been removed from the table. All evidence of the two missing children is gone. No one says a word about their absence and any feelings either the parents or the kids have about their absence go unspoken.
The parents stress to their remaining children that they should be grateful to be able to stay in the family. To show their appreciation, the children will be expected to take on additional chores that their siblings used to do. The parents assure the kids that this will make them a closer family.
What do you think the children who are left behind are feeling? Sadness at having lost their siblings? Guilt over being allowed to stay in the family? Anger at their parents for changing the rules midstream? Anxiety and panic over their own future? Or perhaps they feel nothing at all because it's too dangerous to feel.
Similarly, survivors of downsized organizations often feel depressed, paranoid, angry, numb and betrayed. Couple that with reduced commitment, risk-taking and spontaneity and you have the formula for what Noer terms, "Layoff Survivor Sickness" - a paralyzing condition caused by the profound shift in the psychological employment contract between individuals and organizations.
You can point the finger of blame at your employer, but it won't help much. Most layoffs are an inevitable consequence of new social and economic forces, not organizational malice and incompetence. And while many organizations bungle the layoff process badly, you must accept the responsibility for managing your own career amid the chaos if you choose to stay with the company.
Expect Confusion
"After a downsizing, the environment can be like emotional quicksand," says Englewood, Colorado, career counselor Linda Bougie. "There's a real loss of control, like everything that's happening is out of your hands."
Maureen Gold, who manages Baxter Healthcare Corporation's career center in Deerfield, Illinois, agrees: "When an organization is going through a lot of change, it's harder for people to take control of their careers because the overwhelming message is that you don't have control."
Your first goal should be to take stock of your feelings and, if necessary, make some positive deposits into your emotional bank account. How can you do this? Synergies are hard to achieve when your company is downsizing. Knowing that, your goal is to rebuild damaged relationships and forge new alliances with people in the organization you still esteem and trust. Says Gold: "People you respect can be energy sources that keep you motivated."
While you may feel compelled to avoid mentioning the layoffs when talking with colleagues, emotional honesty can go a long way in an anxiety-ridden environment. On the other hand, unexpressed fears and feelings tend to gain power and momentum, sabotaging relationships and paralyzing productivity.
If you're a manager, you can help interrupt that cycle and it won't cost the company a thing! Simply encourage your people to express their feelings and fears openly. But don't react negatively to what they say. Also, let them know that what they're experiencing is perfectly natural under the circumstances.
Talking about your own feelings can establish a healthy atmosphere for discussion. One senior manager was able to reconnect effectively with his staff this way. "Believe me," he told them sincerely, "I feel as bad about this as you do."
Similarly, an operations manager called a meeting in which all of his remaining group members were encouraged to vent feelings and discuss personal reactions to the layoffs. Noer says such "leading from the heart" is critical to the recovery and success of downsized organizations.
If you aren't an executive, you can still improve your situation by encouraging your boss to open up the lines of feelings and communication. Rather than wait like a powerless child to see what your crazy company is going to foist on you next, why not find your own voice and message amidst the confusion? Think about those metaphorical children. What if they stood up to their parents and said: "Your priorities don't make any sense to us. Isn't there a way to improve our finances without destroying our family?" What if they suggested more acceptable alternatives to breaking up the home? For example, the kids could work after school to supplement the family income through paper routes, dog walking or lemonade stands. They could volunteer to live with a treasured aunt and uncle until finances got better. Or, perhaps the family could cut expenses by renting out rooms or moving into a smaller place.
