The Inclusive Organization

9Impactful Layoffs

It's the start of a fresh workday. You woke up a bit earlier today and decided to go for a morning jog before your first meeting. After finishing your run, you get cleaned up and make yourself a fresh pot of coffee or tea and some toast. You pull your laptop out at your kitchen table as you prepare to go over new emails as you munch on your breakfast. But for some reason your password isn't working, and you can't log in to your computer. It's definitely strange, but you pull out your phone to check your work email and see if there was any notice from the organization or security team that would explain your difficulty logging in. To your shock, when you try to open your email you get a prompt saying the email account has been deactivated. Your mind starts racing, and you feel a growing panic. You don't want to believe it, you knew it was happening for organizations across all industries, but you never thought it would happen to you.

Layoffs are like a blindsided breakup. Imagine you are married and out of the blue your partner hands you divorce papers over your morning coffee. To top it off, you have to pack up all of your belongings under the watchful gaze of a security officer (now where did that person come from?!), and you're not even given the chance to say good‐bye to your in‐laws! It's shocking and heartbreaking, and you're having a hard time processing these changes as they are hitting you so fast your head is starting to spin.

This is the sad reality ...