Redundancy Reveals Heart of Business

We all know job security is a thing of the past. When costs need to be cut, getting rid of people is now a relatively easy option, nevertheless how a company handles redundancy, even when it’s unavoidable, goes to the heart of how they conduct their business.

Ex-Daily Telegraph man Kim Fletcher wrote recently about being made redundant, “Having sacked and been sacked, I know it is the sacked who question their competence, lose their self esteem and wonder what they will do when the pay-off runs out.” At the very least, these people deserve to be treated with compassion by their former employers but sadly this isn’t always the case.

Not even the world’s most powerful businesswoman was protected from being unceremoniously discarded earlier this year. Ex-Chief Executive of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina describes how “the board did not have the courage to face me. They did not thank me and they did not say goodbye.”

It’s a very similar experience to that of a Southampton woman I met recently who was the victim of cost-cutting. She was assured she was good at the senior management job she had been trusted to do for over fifteen years but nevertheless, on “legal advice”, her company mobile was seized, she was marched out of the office, offered no expression of sorrow or thanks, and given a neutral reference. Legal no doubt, but civilised? I don’t think so.

Fortunately some companies do manage to operate both legally and with humanity. Early in my working life, my employer had to make cuts because business had slowed down. The manager was in tears. He was reassuring. He wrote a great reference. I was still out of a job but I felt a lot better about it. It’s good business practice because remaining employees are more likely to be loyal to a compassionate company. Lack of respect for people by a company’s management breeds a cynical ethos, a dispirited workforce and ultimately lost customers.

Having talked to a number of people who have been made redundant, I have some advice. Don’t think you are safe because you are a key employee: you can’t get more essential than Carly Fiorina. Don’t regard your colleagues or boss as friends: when the chips are down, they will think of number one. Never keep anything personal at work: you may be rushed out so quickly you will never get access to emails on your PC or numbers on your mobile.

And always remember: if you do find you are treated like a commodity rather than a human being, the shame is on the company, not on you.