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Navigating Layoffs: Practical Advice for Every Side of the Table · Unspoken Career Truths

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  Hey, Lauren, We have kind of a serious topic today.
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  There's been a huge uptick in layoffs year over year across
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  the US. Most measures are saying it
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  actually increased 75% compared to last year.
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  People lost their jobs. So we thought this was a time to
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  just a really important time to actually talk about layoffs.
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  And since both you and I have experienced layoffs in one way
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  or another, we wanted to talk about the three sides to
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  layoffs. Welcome to Unspoken Career
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  Truths. I'm Lauren Levac Gilbert.
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  And I'm Cara Wood. And we're here to be the Co
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  workers you can trust. A lot of people are dealing with
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  this right now and just the world that we live in and always
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  have been dealing with this. So I think it's good to take a
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  like framework approach, right? Because it can be emotional.
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  So think about like what are the things that you need to do if it
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  happens to you? Yeah, exactly.
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  And I, and I think what's interesting about this is if it
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  happens to you, we often times think because you're laid off,
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  but it actually, I would argue it happens to you when your
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  colleagues are laid off or when you are the one who has to lay
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  people off. So it, it really has like a
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  rippling impact on everyone. And I want to talk first about
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  just what to do if you're laid off.
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  For me, looking back when I was laid off, I really think about
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  it in three moments in time. The first one was when I got the
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  news. And I think there's just two
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  things. If you get this news, if you can
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  remember these two things. One, build, don't burn your
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  bridges. So as it's a super emotional
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  moment. But I, I myself freelance for
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  the folks that laid me off. I've rehired folks that I've
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  laid off. And I know plenty of other
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  people who network with their colleagues and they're so
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  grateful that they didn't burn their bridge in that very tense
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  moment. And and yeah, so that is one
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  thing to think of. And then the second one is ask
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  all the questions that you can kind of try to slow down as much
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  as possible, but just know, or if you know yourself and you
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  can't ask the questions in the moment, then get the contact
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  information and find out who can I follow up with when I have
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  questions? Because you're going to get a
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  lot of information around your severance and your benefits and
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  other things that your company may have put together.
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  And you're going to want to have that paperwork and those answers
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  or the person to call for those answers.
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  The only thing I'll add to that is it's a super emotional time,
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  so understand that and you should have time to feel your
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  feelings, but try not to react emotionally in the moment,
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  especially when you need to ask those questions and keep a level
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  head. Just make sure you set aside
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  time to process and allow those emotions to come up and just
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  recognize that in yourself. The best thing that I did when I
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  was laid off in that moment was actually just like, say the word
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  thank you. You know, you have the
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  relationship that you had with the people that are laying you
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  off. So, you know, that doesn't go
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  away after you're laid off. I think the next step is
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  honestly Aftershock. Make this time carve out like
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  Aftershock to feel your feelings.
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  Things that I did and the things that people around me who've
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  been laid off have done is like, reach out, make plans with your
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  best people, have plans for the next day after your layoff.
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  I was surrounded by my loving book club.
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  And the best thing, the first person I told said, do you want
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  me to tell everyone else? And so then I didn't even have
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  to repeat the news, but everyone knew I was kind of like crying
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  and clutching Kleenex. So that's one thing to do in
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  your aftershock. And then the second thing is
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  actually just take a really realistic look at your finances
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  and dig into all the information that you gathered because you
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  want to sort of know which path you need to take and how dire
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  your situation is. Unemployment can take a while to
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  kick in and you want to apply for it, know that it might not
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  be available for for months actually.
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  And then the last thing to do in the aftershock moments are take
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  inventory of your last projects, your wins, your responsibility,
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  like data dump. And this can be your angry
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  journaling. If you're like I did all these
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  amazing things, you know, this is like private for you, but
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  also going to feed into whatever portfolio that you eventually
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  want to build and you. Don't need to jump to LinkedIn
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  and write about it, right? Like you can take the time to
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  process it. Tell your circle of people or
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  don't tell your circle of people.
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  Like this is your journey and your time and like you need to
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  do what's best for you and your family.
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  Don't feel like there's AI should do this or I should do
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  that. Like focus on yourself and just
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  really kind of take assessment around this time.
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  Yeah, I love that you pointed that out because honestly, like,
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  no one's going to out you on social media for being laid off,
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  but you can out yourself real fast.
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  And so having a strategy for just how you want to do that.
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  Again, like personal experience, I wrote a blog post a week
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  before I was laid off, knowing the layoff was I was.
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  Luckily I got a week's heads up for my final day, so like that
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  allowed me to almost kind of come up with a calm strategy.
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  I'm so glad you said that because one of the things when
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  you first brought off this topic, the first thing that came
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  to my mind is there's a right way to talk about this on
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  LinkedIn and there's a wrong way.
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  And I've seen both. And so just be very conscious of
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  how you word it to to your point, like try to remove the
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  emotion from it and try to take a kind of learnings approach, a
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  thank you approach, a hey, this is what I'm looking for
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  approach. And you don't have to say I was
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  laid off. You can say I'm looking for my
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  next opportunity. And that's a better way of
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  phrasing it. So you're going to want to
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  network a ton and be as gracious as possible.
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  But if you can't be gracious, be vague, because being big is
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  better I. Love that.
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  And being angry. So yeah, if you don't want to
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  own the layoff, if you're not ready to talk about, you know,
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  your past experience, like any of that, you don't need to take
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  the time you need. And if you can invest in the new
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  skills and experiences that you want and that could look like
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  what kind of job you seek or that could look like actually
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  taking some time and like pivoting.
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  And you know me, Cara, I am like a big networker.
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  And so my small little plug here will be you should always be
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  networking because you never know when this is going to
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  happen. And it is a muscle.
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  There's a way of having these casual conversations and they
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  can pay off in times like this. Yeah.
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  And actually that kind of brings us to like when you're left
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  behind, right? Because when you're left behind
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  you, there's a lot of things that actually go on.
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  And I don't think a lot of people talk about this.
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  I want to first set up, this can happen in a couple different
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  ways. Like 1 is that you're blindsided
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  and you just find out that a bunch of your colleagues are
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  gone. And another way is actually
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  that, you know, ahead of some of the people who are about to be
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  affected. And I've Lauren, what's your
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  experience been like? I would say so.
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  I've been a part of with many layoffs in my career and I feel
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  like everybody will be. And that's the first thing I
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  want to say. If you are in your career for
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  1020 years, you've witnessed multiple layoffs.
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  Your first one really challenging.
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  Like it's not that it's never not challenging, but you can get
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  used to what questions to ask and how to go through it.
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  So I just want to say that because no one ever said that to
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  me. And I was like, Oh my God again.
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  And then I would say the other thing is I always if it happens
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  and I am blindsided, I clear my day.
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  Like no matter what meetings I have, I just get rid of them
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  because it can be super emotional, especially if your Co
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  workers, your friends might be laid off.
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  Like you want to be able to support them.
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  You want to also support yourself.
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  Yeah. And I think that leadership, a
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  really informed leadership and leadership that's done this, you
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  know, has gone through layoffs themselves.
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  They are actually aware that you're going to have emotions.
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  And so I've been in situations where they are the ones who say
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  block your calendar, go home early.
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  There's a bunch of questions you can ask that I feel like are
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  really helpful when this happens to you.
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  And one of the big ones, because a lot of times layoffs come with
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  reorgs or reprioritization because the company is facing
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  some kind of financial decision. Point is like what metrics do we
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  care about now? What are the most important
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  things for you and your new role or in this job today that might
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  have changed from when you started it?
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  It's also really important that you understand, like if there
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  was a reorg, what are the structural changes.
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  And the other thing I'll say from the leadership perspective
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  is try to remember it's hard on them too.
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  I think sometimes we can look as at the leadership as the ones
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  that have made the decision or the ones that are are doing this
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  to the organization or to the employees.
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  But just remember, it's also really hard for them. 100
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  percent, 100% the other thing you mentioned already, Lauren,
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  like doing something for your Co workers.
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  And one of the most valuable things I think is that you
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  actually provide like genuine feedback to the core because
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  it's nice to reach out to everyone.
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  Just be like, how are you? But literally say like, I so
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  appreciate XYZ skill that you have because that person is in
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  this moment where they're wondering what to leverage and
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  what to do next. And so to remind them of what
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  they've meant to you of projects that were important, that just
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  gives them again, some future resume father.
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  So in addition to introducing them to folks and making time
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  for them on your calendar, remind them specifically like
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  why you're going to miss them and which skills they still have
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  and they've taken with them. I love that idea.
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  It's all about supporting people in this moment and like just say
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  like, hey, we don't have to have a call now, but if you want to
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  have a call in a couple weeks and let's talk about like how I
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  can help or who I can connect you with.
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  It's just always nice to reach out for support.
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  So I love that Cara. Last section that we're going to
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  talk about and Lauren, you already teed this up so well.
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  For me, the actually the worst of these three roles is the
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  person that has to wield the axe.
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  When you are the one who has to lay people off, it is incredibly
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  painful, incredibly difficult, and a lot of times in part
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  because you know the information ahead of sometimes months ahead
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  of time, and then you're managing and you're waiting for
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  this terrible blow and you're the one who's dealing this
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  terrible emotional blow to folks, so.
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  It it's a really, really hard thing, especially because I
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  think we all try to be human and, and have as much empathy as
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  we can at at work. And so this is a business
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  related kind of topic that sometimes has to happen and it's
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  just really challenging. So I think like just accept that
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  and also make sure you feel your feelings and give yourself the
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  time to process and hang out with your friends and be in a
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  happy place. And like, make sure you take
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  that time because it's not easy to be the one that does it
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  either. Yeah.
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  And again, I think of this in three steps, like three stages
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  where it's a time because ahead of time you're going to know
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  ahead of time you're going to find out the news.
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  And what you want to do is get really specific about the
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  requirements because sometimes it's about headcount and
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  sometimes it's about amount of money and sometimes it's about
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  reorging and aligning to that. And so really make sure that you
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  understand what the business is looking for and asking for and
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  push back. If the cut rationale that you're
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  hearing about doesn't align like to what the business value is
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  like, just make sure you're aligning and you can do that in
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  gentle ways where you're like, I want to make sure that I do a
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  thing that actually moves the needle on where we're going.
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  And I also, I remember the first time I had to do this, I
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  actually practiced with HR. So I was like, hey, can we just
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  like do this in a mock setting? So like I can get comfortable
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  with the words and I can just feel comfortable in the moment.
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  Because you can also get emotional, right?
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  So you need to make sure that you are kind of reserving your
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  emotion to also allow space for them to have emotion.
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  Absolutely. Because then on the day, like,
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  yeah, practice, because the goal I think is to be as direct and
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  compassionate as possible. And HR may have told you things
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  that you can't say or can say knowing sort of what you're
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  going to say, maybe having a few like notes so that you hit what
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  you need to say. And then giving the person space
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  to be emotional. Have a tissue box with you if
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  you're in person. And be in a room without
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  windows. I think that would be my biggest
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  piece of feedback. Like I remember being at an
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  organization where the windows were not like they were see
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  through and and you could see it happening and that it just
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  wasn't, it just wasn't the right situation.
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  So make sure it's private, make sure you allow them to leave if
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  they need to and they have like a way to exit privately.
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  Like it's just, it's just really important to think about those
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  little things in the environment as well.
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  Manager you may, you most likely have a team that's left behind
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  as well and so have a comps plan for them that includes like who
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  was impacted and sometimes HR might have a policy where you
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  can't do that. But I always advocate, if you
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  can, being really clear to people like here's who's
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  affected and here's what our go forward plan is because you
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  actually want to in some ways energize folks around this
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  moment in time with a clear like, This is why we're doing
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  it. And I believe in all of you to
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  keep us moving forward. This is going to affect your
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  culture and like give it some processing time before you get
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  super excited and jazzed about the future because you know, you
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  had this moment where people have been affected.
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  But think about like over the next couple of weeks, what can
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  you do? How do you repair?
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  How do you think about those things?
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  Because all that stuff it like builds over time and you don't
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  want it to affect the broader culture and business if you if
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  you can. I think about people have
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  specific questions usually and it's why and what about me?
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  And so when I say like be energized about it, I'm like,
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  you want to give them a the what about you is I need you here and
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  I believe in you. Like I love that.
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  Yeah, it's but it's tough one. And then you already mentioned
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  this like the for yourself thing.
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  Acknowledge that this is super difficult and do exactly what
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  you do if you were laid off, like put time with your loved
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  ones, nature therapist, like other leaders that you trust.
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  It's actually super valuable to talk to other leaders about
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  this, especially if you're all going through it or if you just
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  have someone in your network who has done this before.
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  Because to your point, Lauren, at some point in your career,
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  you're going to go through a layoff.
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  So it's. You know, to not feel as alone.
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  I completely agree. I have a a good friend in HR and
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  she's my go to. I'm like OK, just not thinking
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  about it. Like, please give me some advice
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  and just just have a sounding board As for many things that we
• 14:13
  talked about on this podcast. And if and if our sound, that
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  sounding board is us, then just tell us what you're going
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  through and you love fans you want.
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  To hear about it. Scenarios to recap, layoffs have
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  a negative effect on every single person, not just the
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  person that's laid off, but the first, the people that are left
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  behind and the managers. You are not alone in your grief.
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  Everyone grieves starting a layoff.
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  And the next thing, prepare your portfolio and your finances now
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  and just revisit them quarterly. Like it's not a paranoid thing
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  to do. It's really valuable.
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  Understand your leadership's key metrics and performance.
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  See look out for those signals and understand, are we meeting
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  what we're supposed to be meeting?
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  Are you seeing reorg signals? All of that and networking
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  connect because you never know. And it's really valuable, again,
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  to just not feel alone. And wait for the networking
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  episodes so I can tell you about all my tips.
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  Yay. And that's a wrap.
• 15:05
  Thanks for joining us on Unspoken Career Truths.
• 15:08
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• 15:11
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