Layoffs don’t have to be so cruel. Here’s how Big Tech can do better
BY RIMMA BOSHERNITSAN
Google and other Big Tech giants laid off thousands with an email. That’s outrageous and inhumane, this leadership strategist says.
Learning that you’ve been laid off from a device on your bedside table might sound like an episode out of Black Mirror, but for some former Google employees, it was a regular Friday morning.
Former Twitter employees didn’t fare much better in November. Only after their access to the company Slack was cut off did they receive a blunt email with the subject line, “Your Role at Twitter,” notifying them of their termination, with nothing akin to accountability or even so much as a signature from its chief executive officer, Elon Musk.
When the major technologies and companies that we’ve come to call Big Tech first emerged in the early aughts, it was supposed to be the start of a better way. These companies promised to make us smarter, to improve our productivity, and to care about people and purpose in a way that the big companies of the past weren’t capable of doing. Essentially, they promised to deliver a future of work that was as human as it was innovative and disruptive. At the moment, most of the industry is falling far short of the last three promises.
As our decision-making processes continue to be driven more and more by algorithms and automated systems and less by people, a gap is emerging between the future of the workplace we aspire to and the one we have.
At fault is how leaders are approaching organizational changes. No automated system, however smart, can replace the value of intuition, intelligence, and trust that comes from human beings taking care of human beings.
Where’s the Empathetic Leadership?
As we watch this wave of layoffs unfold via news chyrons and our personal LinkedIn feeds, the need for greater empathy in business is on display. And I cannot help but see a deep, structural disconnect that exists between the values employees expect and leaders’ ability to deliver on them, especially in the tech industry.
While 89% of workers agree that empathy leads to better leadership, 77% of CEOs continue to worry they will lose respect if they’re too empathetic. But it’s the leaders who trust in empathy that put themselves in the strongest possible position. That’s because, for leaders, empathy isn’t just a moral imperative, it’s also a well-proven economic one.
Nearly 9 out of 10 employees feel that mutual empathy increases their efficiency, productivity, creativity, and innovation—all indicators and drivers of economic performance.
Despite these benefits, in the past year, as employees have looked to their managers and executives for greater empathy in the face of compounding societal factors including market volatility, empathy in the workplace has actually decreased.
The state of empathy in the workplace was already in flux prior to the most recent round of layoffs. But now, it’s bordering on a crisis. So much so, that the “future of work,” which we’ve spent the last decade envisioning, might just be at stake.
The most critical, yet often underestimated element of the employee experience is trust. Bottom line: organizations function on employees being invested in their leaders’ visions and trusting that they will do the right thing—for the company and the employees, individually. But as empathy declines, so does individuals’ trust in their employers—which has the potential to unravel not just company culture, but whole operating structures.
It’s time to consider that perhaps an overreliance on the systems these companies have created to fuel hyperconnectivity is chipping away at leaders’ ability to truly understand their employees’ needs and center empathy at all turns.
Don’t Be Cruel
The recent layoffs in Big Tech have been nothing short of a case study on how a leader’s approach to organizational change can have irreparable harm on a brand’s reputation—among both consumers and, more importantly, their employees.
Following the company’s layoffs in November, both Twitter’s image and culture remain in purgatory.
Two months after the notorious email that formalized employees’ termination (which was devoid of both emotion and crucial details), some former employees were still waiting to receive details about their severance, and other employees had left voluntarily in an exodus against leadership.
In contrast, Stripe’s cofounders, brothers John and Patrick Collison, were lauded for taking accountability, being transparent about their decision-making, providing details about benefits, and creating open lines of communication in an internal memo announcing layoffs. In the weeks that followed, it became a model of how to articulate the human cost of organizational changes.
But, as seen in the case of Microsoft, great communication is only as powerful as the action that exists alongside it.
While CEO Satya Nadella’s statement was initially well-received, it was soon spoiled by reporting that the company had paid a handsome price for Sting to perform a private concert for executives in celebration of “sustainability,” mere hours before 10,000 workers were laid off.
Nadella has written a book on grounding tech in empathy (and is considered a humanist by some), so there should be no doubt about his ultimate motives. Yet, if last week proved anything, it’s that for even the most empathetic of leaders, there remains a gap between the overarching values they espouse and the success they’ve achieved in distilling these values within the bigger picture.
If ever an important time to fill this gap, it’s during a layoff.
Three Ways to Make Layoffs More Humane
Layoffs of any magnitude require intense preparation, foresight, and above all, empathy—for both your employees directly impacted and those who inherit the task of rebuilding culture in their wake.
As I came to learn while overseeing organizational changes for clients at Deloitte, no layoff is easy—but there are ways to minimize harm to both your people and your brand in the long term:
Create a Foundation for Closure: The same care you take in designing orientation programs should be extended to communicating impending layoffs and offboarding employees. To start, the first time your employees learn about a layoff should not be in an email or some other impersonal system, notifying them of their employment status. Psychologists and HR executives alike agree that announcing layoffs ahead of time can help employees emotionally prepare. Letting your employees know when the layoffs will occur, what those impacted by the layoff can expect, and how the broader team will be available for support is a crucial first step in helping your entire team come to terms with the news.
Exercise Radical Transparency: When notifying employees about their status, be clear about what factors led to the ultimate decision of which departments would be impacted. Outside of recognizing the macro-conditions at play, leaders have a responsibility to take accountability for where they’ve made mistakes to help prevent employees from developing shame, low self-esteem, and even depression—all of which can linger for years to come—as a result of self-blame. Above all, employees want to feel like they’ve made a significant impact. To help preserve their self-confidence in the long term, voice your appreciation and help them understand that their termination isn’t a reflection of their talent or skill.
Prioritize Employees’ Recovery: It’s likely some of your remaining employees may develop survivor’s guilt, which can result in decreased productivity, higher voluntary turnover, and lower morale. For the remaining employees, provide a checklist of what they can expect from leadership in the upcoming days and weeks, be clear about how their department will be impacted in the interim, direct them to resources they can utilize for ongoing support, and create additional opportunities to meet as a community.
Building the working environment we all aim for—one that’s as groundbreaking as it is stabilizing—is possible when employers commit to activating accountability consciousness, and strategic thinking driven by empathy.
Rimma Boshernitsan is founder and CEO of DIALOGUE, a strategy advisory that helps leaders and companies find the shortest, cleanest path to their most ambitious goals.