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Notwithstanding my last rosy post on the economy, "Fear sells," we are indeed spending a lot of time at our firm talking with clients about layoffs. They are, without a doubt, one of the worst things an HR professional or a management lawyer has to deal with. (Of course, let's not forget: they are much harder on the laid-off employees.)
One of the concerns we heard over and over from our corporate clients was how to avoid the gossiping and rumormongering that can surround layoffs like circling vultures. Oftentimes, ahead of a planned layoff, companies will go all CTU-style need-to-know on their employees. The thinking here is that layoffs should be kept secret until they're rolled out at H-hour. This keeps the rumors to a minimum, and keeps employees productive until the embargo lifts and the layoffs actually occur.
That's dumb.
Well-intentioned, but dumb. You see, one of the principles of this blog is that any given employee at any given time has a certain probability — P — of suing the employer. Certain events, such as firing the employee, tend to raise P. While it is impossible to reduce P to zero, it is the role of managers, HR pros, and employment lawyers to help lower P.
This is my fifteenth year of helping employers fix workplace problems. In my experience, surprising employees with bad news tends to increase P. For that reason, we always tell clients that an employee who is about to be disciplined or fired should not be surprised by it. Otherwise, the surprise acts as a multiplier of the bad feelings that come with the bad news, and it raises P even more.
The same is true in a layoff situation. To be sure, no one wants the workplace shut down because everyone's too busy gossiping and spreading rumors before an expected layoff. But carefully leaking some information about the upcoming layoff, maybe a week beforehand, gives people a chance to come to grips with their possible fate. Those whose departments are underperforming, or whose own work performance is weak, may come to realize that their departure is inevitable. I'm not saying that they're going to be happy about it. But without the element of surprise to exacerbate the hurt feelings and other emotions that come with a layoff, their personal P may be low enough to avoid lawsuits.
