Layoff Patterns at Workplace and their Impact

Ruckus caused due to the season of layoffs is yet to settle, the market is still volatile and the employees of various organizations are still at the risk of being fired. This repercussion of pandemic has proven out to be very unforgiving on the workforce. During the times of pandemic there was immense hiring in IT industry, whereas other industries like hospitality and travel saw the maximum layoffs. IT industry during the COVID saw an upsurge, in onboarding of techies and handsome hikes on their paychecks, to cater to new projects and work from home culture.

But post pandemic, the oversaturated market started to downsize or resize itself, the companies started to cut down on their human resources to maximize their profits. The looming fear of recession that the pandemic has left us with, has hit the economy hard. In the US alone, there has already been loss of more than 150,000 jobs so far. The tech giants who hired in bulk during pandemic, are also following the trend and have decided to cut down on their costs by laying off their excess employees.

In some companies the layoff season went on for 3 to 4 months, whereas some companies decided to wind the process in relatively lesser time of few weeks and published their lists of employees, they were to layoff. In either of the cases the news is never pleasant and many took the hard blow of this truth in their faces.

I have observed the impact of both the patterns of layoffs and my further study of each of the cases also made their pros and cons evident to me.

Case 1 – Companies where the layoff phase went on for 3 to 4 months, the activities inside the companies went on with least amount of disturbance because the changes were brought in phases.

The ongoing engagements weren’t abruptly put to halt because there was no lack of human resource, all of a sudden.

The commitments and targets were met in most of the cases without lagging much on delivery timelines.

The human resource agencies had enough time to thoughtfully allocate/relocate work force where ever required.

However, because of the longer period of the firing phase in these companies, their employees were subjected to longer cycle of trauma, anxiety, apprehension and depression, impacting their mental health and their productivity at work.

Case 2 – Companies where layoffs were made in few weeks, their employees did not go through the long traumatic phase of apprehending their names to be the next on the layoff list.

Since the layoff lists came out in comparatively shorter span of time, employees made peace with management’s decision, the people accepted their fate and planned their next move.

Once the judgement day was over, the still on-board employees were psychologically less burdened, with their jobs secured, they could concentrate better on their jobs and were more productive.

On the down side of this pattern, sudden deboarding of employees caused an abrupt pause to the ongoing activities in the companies.

Meeting the commitments on time became challenging and deliveries were delayed.

The remaining employees after layoff had to fill in for their colleagues in order to keep the shop running, which added to their work loads.

The human resource agencies had to work on war footing, to fill in the positions left open by sudden deboarding of staff, from within the organization to salvage ongoing engagements from the threat of slipping behind.

My observations are subjectively comparative, solely on the basis of my understanding of the layoff patterns, considered by the managements of different companies in the current ongoing scenario. Whenever recession happens, it slumps the market, causing major upheaval in businesses and causing disruption of lives. When cash flow in the market is compromised, companies are forced to get into the ‘cost-cutting’ mode, it becomes inevitable and the layoffs are primary and direct outcome of it.

In circumstances like these, the companies need to be more thoughtful, generous and respectful when taking such life impacting decisions. They need to give their employees proper notice period to serve which they can use to find another job, companies should facilitate the access of various channels to find employment for free of cost to their employees, continue the health/medical benefits of their employees and their families for longer than the usual mandated clause, to make their transition smoother and help them to restore their career as soon as possible.

These are the tough times and one is needed to acclimatize sooner to the volatility at work and the companies have to be more compassionate and respectful when the matter in discussion is an issue as sensitive as the livelihood of the people at large.