- Share This Post
- submit
- 2
-
Sparkle (0)
Your company just went through another round of layoffs. So many of your colleagues are gone, just like that. You breathe a sigh of relief. At least you still have a job. Yet, are you really better off? According to a recent MSNBC article, the opposite may be true.
In the BusinessWeek article "Can being laid off really make you better off?" Michelle Conlin reports on research from Boeing over the span of ten years showed that axed workers were healthier than those left behind. In a study from 1996 to 2006, a tumultuous decade when Boeing laid off tens of thousands, research shows that the survivors suffered just as much, if not more than colleagues who got laid off.
"How much better off the laid-off were was stunning and shocking to us," says Sarah Moore, a University of Puget Sound industrial psychology professor who is one of the book's four authors.
What is the cause of this? Consider this familiar scenario to anyone who has ever survived a round of layoffs.
With each round of layoffs, the survivors hustled to reinvent themselves. They re-proved, re-auditioned, and repositioned, only to watch yet another new manager — pushing the fad du jour — parade through the door. Employees who had once seen themselves in every plane that flew overhead were now trading in gallows humor. As in, "Dead worker walking."
Human resources specialist Frank Zemek was the researchers' main contact. In an interview, he recalled "the survivor's guilt of the people who were left, who were waiting and not knowing if the hatchet was going to fall on them. They experienced the worst stress."
As someone who has both survived numerous layoffs and has been laid off, I have to say that being a survivor isn't without its grief. Who in the workforce in the last ten years hasn't been told "we'll just have to do more with less". I mean really. By the time you are doing the job of two, three, four, five, ten other people, it is literally impossible not to burn out or have health problems unless you are extremely resilient and adamant about your personal boundaries.
This is not to say that being laid off is not without its challenges. For those unable to find work or in financial distress, no one is going to convince you that your layoff had a silver lining. Just check out the disparity of comments on getting laid off being a blessing in disguise. (the "hog" comments are a whole new form of venting). Yet, no matter what happens in life, it is what we do with it that determines our current experience and future possibilities. This holds true for the surviving employees as well, but the environment can be wildly toxic.
In "After the Ax: As layoffs hit the in-house bar, lawyers struggle but stay hopeful" Lauren Williamson speaks to the plight of in-house lawyers.
Since law departments are so thinly staffed to begin with, letting go of just a few attorneys can have a big impact. Vidal says there aren’t too many options to fill the gaps. "It’s just old-fashioned hard work, and you have to take on more than you had in the past," she says. "It’s a difficult proposition."
If you're struggling to find work, I'm sure you find yourself saying to those you know who kept their jobs, "But at least you still have a job." Yet those very words only add to the stress of those who stay. "Layoffs Also Difficult for Those Who Stay" offers a good reality check for those who feel pollyannaish about those who kept their job:
Yes, those who survive the all-too frequent layoffs these days are grateful for their work, but studies show the stress from all the upheaval can wreak havoc on their health, morale and productivity. And don’t expect them to work harder out of sheer gratitude, a recent survey suggests.
Deborah Dunn, a stress-management counselor who worked with survivors of the shootings at Virginia Tech and Hurricane Katrina, says dealing with the recession and ongoing fears of being laid off can be as difficult as dealing with a disaster. “It’s a killer,” she says.
These people have lost good friends, vast quantities of institutional knowledge, pay raises, benefits
