A 20 Year Contribution Comes With a Face Slap

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I’m committed to helping organizations create workplaces where all of us can thrive. I know there is no perfect work environment, because organizations are constructs, made up by imperfect human beings. However, when companies act like many of the technology firms have recently regarding layoffs, their behavior disgusts me. Here are just a few examples cited from a recent NYT article:

“‘It’s hard for me to believe that after 20 years at Google, I unexpectedly find out about my last day via an email,” a Google engineer, Jeremy Joslin, tweeted. “What a slap in the face.”

‘Employees at a tech company called PagerDuty received notices last week that set a new low bar for a layoff announcement, starting off with a few hundred words of cheery blather and rounding out with a Martin Luther King Jr. quotation about overcoming adversity.

Twitter was at the forefront of the lay-off tsunami ‘“At Twitter, where Elon Musk has embraced managerial incompetence as if it’s an emerging art form that requires great creativity, employees were asked to sign a pledge to be ‘hard core,’ working even longer hours and sleeping in the office if necessary. Unsurprisingly, many instead decided to preserve their family lives and self-respect.’”

How can an employer ask for employees to be ALL IN, and then discard them with such disrespect? No wonder employees are skeptical and wary about giving their hands, hearts and minds to the company when they hear these stories. And frankly, they should be. Why would they be fully committed if an unpredictable outcome could be an impersonal layoff text or email?

So what’s the solution? Although I think the current tech layoffs are very questionable in terms of timing and numbers, employers do have the right to arbitrarily dismiss. However, when/if they do, it should be done with dignity. This includes, AT minimum:

Six months severance or two weeks of severance for every year served.
Health care/benefits for a min of six months.
Help finding new work.
No “perp walk” out, unless egregious behavior and dismissal with cause.
A sincere thank you for contributing.
Email connections to friends/colleagues from work.
Termination from the system effective the last day, but always with respect.
Ability to leave with mobile phones and laptops.

Leaving with dignity ought to be a right! If organizations like these tech companies have open requisitions to hire, and then literally in an abbreviated moment (three months later) decide they should do a massive layoff, they deserve a kick in the pants. It’s lousy planning, cowardly, and a reflection of weak leadership.

Any financial numbskull can lay off thousands of people, treat them poorly, and take a write off. When the execs of these companies take home their millions of dollars at the expense of thousands of families, they should be embarrassed.

They also have a fiduciary responsibility to look after the long term sustainability of the company and interests of ALL stakeholders (including employees). Unless a leader morally sucks, then it’s just them and the investors!

Look at the 2022 year end numbers at Google/Microsoft/Apple, etc. Yes, their net income is down, yet they are making billions of dollars and are mostly cash rich. In my view, these CEO’s are starting to look like miserable 1980’s CEOs, rather than being advanced leaders. This is mostly weak minded, follow the leader, greed, rather than performance or investor return management!

Think big, look after yourself, be aware,

Lorne

One Millennial View: Y’know, if you’re talented, knowledgeable and qualified enough to have a position at a big tech company, here’s a question: In 2023, why in the heck would you want to? Instead, couldn’t you make an insanely positive contribution to a smaller organization, where you’re part of a squad that 1. Fully embraces and rewards your individual contribution and 2. Relieves you from a cesspool with 10,000+ others doing the same or similar work? In 2023, I don’t see the grand appeal of a Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple badge anymore. So, while being unceremoniously dismissed after years of contribution undoubtedly feels terrible, these big tech vets can at least proceed with the confidence to know they likely fall into top talent acquisition, and hopefully in a better, more meaningful environment.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

A 20 Year Contribution Comes With a Face Slap

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