Healing the Wounds: Overcoming the Trauma of Layoffs and Revitalizing Downsized Organizations

4.18. Unexpected Findings

Most of the study findings were consistent with previous research on layoff survivors. Fear, anger, insecurity, depression, and guilt seem to be the core survivor feelings. The perceptions of the layoff survivors in this study were consistent with many of these core feelings. There were, however, some unexpected results.

4.18.1. Few Expressions of Survivor Guilt

Guilt was not identified as a major theme, and it was only a minor theme within three of the ten groups. Since other researchers believe that feelings of guilt are central to survivorship (Chapter Three), the absence of these feelings in this study is notable. One explanation could be that guilt is a difficult human emotion for an individual to own and disclose ...