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It’s no mystery that continued major waves of layoffs within the tech industry are causing suffering for individuals who are being laid off. But a serious elephant within the room is ignored amongst remaining employees: grief. Ignoring the grief that the remaining staff are experiencing threatens to affect the remaining staff’ well-being and corporations’ bottom lines negatively.
Greater than 234,000 tech staff have been laid off this 12 months. Major firms like Amazon, Spotify and Meta have cut tens of hundreds of staff’ jobs this 12 months, including Google’s recent round of layoffs this September. Obvious to most business analysts is that these large-scale layoffs create instability and inefficiencies inside teams. What is less obvious, nevertheless, is that many remaining employees are coping with grief across the lack of coworkers, work rhythms and stability amidst continued layoffs.
Research demonstrates and experts have long warned that layoffs cause detrimental effects on each individual worker performance and company performance. Moreover, major layoffs can cause issues for firms in future employability because future candidates remember how firms handled economic uncertainty through massive layoffs.
What is notably missing from the conversation around the present tech layoffs, nevertheless, is that many major firms are actually facing a grief problem amidst their remaining staff. Failing to handle this issue may make staff suffer and price firms loads of money through the lack of employee productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction.
Related: What the Future Looks Like for Fresh Graduates within the Tech Industry
The remaining employees at these firms are currently experiencing two major kinds of grief. The primary is the actual grief of losing colleagues, work friends, team structure and dynamics, and sometimes work schedule and range of responsibilities. Unfortunately, most firms and managers fail to acknowledge the psychological stress and grief their remaining employees is perhaps experiencing after losing precious team members.
The second type of grief is anticipatory grief, which refers to grief across the potential of losing someone or something. Most remaining employees remain under constant stress of worrying about losing their jobs, one other member of their team, and stability inside their role.
Because most of those layoffs are happening remotely, there is often an added layer of loneliness and isolation experienced by remaining employees. Remaining employees often lose meaningful social connections by being suddenly unable to achieve their coworkers, a lot of whom they only had technique of connecting via workplace channels. All this is happening against the backdrop of a loneliness epidemic within the U.S., as declared by the U.S. Surgeon General.
Related: Tips on how to Combat the Growing Epidemic of Loneliness within the Workplace
Following layoffs, remaining staff suffer. Prior research indicates that after a layoff, 74% of remaining employees report a decline of their productivity, 69% report the standard of their company’s services or products declines, 87% report being less more likely to recommend their organization as a very good organization to work for and 77% report making more errors and mistakes.
Furthermore, probably the most commonly reported feelings after a layoff are anger, anxiety and guilt. These are all common symptoms of grief. The post-layoff period is a fragile time inside an organization, one during which employers should provide adequate support and communication with their remaining workforce.
Whether employees are experiencing grief, anticipatory grief or each, one of the simplest ways for firms to support their workforce is to handle the grief head-on through open, candid conversations. Grief research shows that avoiding conversations around loss only delays the healing process and worsens things.
The interpretation for firms is that their employees will remain bitter, stressed and potentially indignant concerning the situation in the event that they don’t feel seen or heard or their feelings remain unacknowledged. This, in turn, can reduce employee productivity and stop latest teams from forming positive and supportive team environments. Team dynamics are one in every of the most important and best predictors of workplace efficiency, so ignoring this problem can be costly in the long run, each by way of well-being and productivity.
Corporations hold loads of power to course correct during this unstable time. Prior research indicates that following layoffs, staff who feel their managers are visible, approachable and open are 70% less more likely to report drops in productivity and 65% less more likely to report a decline of their organization’s quality of labor or service.
Managers must communicate with team members through one-on-one conversations, allowing their direct reports to process their feelings. This open, candid and empathic communication can create space for a latest and positive team dynamic to emerge.
One of the best places for firms and managers to begin are with key communication tactics that work in supporting those that are grieving and promoting resilience and growth:
- Acknowledge how remaining employees is perhaps feeling
- Normalize experiencing feelings of guilt, anger, sadness, uncertainty, denial or regret following a serious layoff
- Be candid about reasons for downsizing and layoffs
- Focus on the long run and the way employees can move forward with the corporate’s latest vision
- Connect employees with their latest teams in meaningful ways to create social cohesion
Throughout the whole trajectory of layoffs, from announcing that they’re coming to shedding individuals, firms needs to be mindful to maintain their communications candid, consistent and transparent. Resources needs to be dedicated to training managers and team leads in empathic communication. Designated spaces and meetings needs to be created for discussing the subject of layoffs. Employees needs to be given ample opportunities to ask questions.
Avoidance is the enemy of excellent communication, whereas transparent, empathic, and person-centered communication can go a good distance in creating trust, stability, and vision in a corporation’s very unstable time of grief. This may, in turn, improve the corporate’s bottom line as well.