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#FiringEmployees : Five Ways to Ensure Employees are Laid Off in the Most Humane and Respectable Way! Great Read for All!

Laying people off is uncomfortable and emotionally draining. After all, you’re human! Goodness knows you wouldn’t want to be them, going home to face their families. You worry that they’re going to have one heck of a time finding another job, or a job that pays as well, or a manager who will be sympathetic to their special needs… or anything else that weighs on your mind about releasing them.

Here are five things you can do to alleviate some of the stress you personally feel when laying off employees:

1- Treat them with the utmost respect! Be kind. Even if you believe they deserve to be let go, “let it go.” Terminated employees will always remember “how” they were told and how they were treated. The sting of being notified that their job is being eliminated will never leave their memory. Never! More legal retribution is sought by terminated employees due to how they were treated at the time of the notification than for any other reason.

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2- Don’t let a “stranger” or some unknown person notify the employee that their job has been eliminated. This news should come from someone who the employee knows and who has personally interacted with the employee during the normal course of their workday. Do your best to insist that your employees are notified by a familiar face.

3- Have personal knowledge about the outplacement benefit you have arranged for employees and encourage them to take advantage of it. Provide separated employees with outplacement benefits from a company that you can honestly say will give them the greatest level of support.

4- Oftentimes, HR uses an outplacement firm that is the most convenient, or the cheapest, without making an effort to understand the difference in services. It’s in the best interest of the company to encourage employees to use the outplacement services! Better to have your separated employees focus on the future with a career consultant than to be bitter, smoldering and venting on the Internet or with the attorneys they have called.

5- Drop the hard party lines. Don’t escort an employee out the door with their cardboard box of personal items for all their peers and the company to see. If they have been impacted by a true reduction in force, and not terminated for cause, then let’s not give the impression that this is a punitive action. Make arrangements for employees to save face and come back after hours (or during certain hours) to clean out their desks. Or offer them the option of having someone they trust remove their personal items for them.

Now, a last, but certainly not least, word about this. Ask yourself the question: “If I were to be terminated, how would I want this experience to go down for me?” Then do what you can to treat others the way you would want to be treated yourself.

 

FSC Guest Author: Susan Howington is a sought-after expert in the Executive Career Transition field, applying her practical knowledge and visionary wisdom as a consultant, coach, author and industry speaker. Her success derives from her understanding that in circumstances of job search, nothing replaces the effectiveness of human interaction and person to person connections. Through her company, Power Connections, Susan utilizes her highly respected reputation to assist companies in transitioning their employees during outplacement initiatives.

 

How Smart People Sabotage Their Job Search
Susan’s book How Smart People Sabotage Their Job Search is on Amazon. Be sure to check it out and order your copy today!

 

FSC Career Blog | April 10,2020 | By

#CareerAdvice : #GotFired – Can You Be #Fired for Joining A Walkout?

When hundreds of Wayfair employees walked off the job June 26 to protest the company’s sale of furniture to a migrant detention center in Texas, they brought politics directly into the workplace. It’s not the first time employees have staged a massive protest, and it certainly won’t be the last.

As an employment lawyer, I’ve watched employee groups increasingly use open dissent to change corporate behavior in matters that have nothing to do with their employment or the workplace. Their focus is must larger: corporate responsibility. Last year, Google employees publicly objected to that company’s plan to launch a Chinese search engine that would spy on Chinese citizens. In February, Microsoft workers walked out over their employer’s contract to supply augmented reality headsets for use in weapons systems.

Welcome to the brave new world of free expression for American workers and their employers.

The story

Wayfair employees disagreed with the company’s decision to sell furniture to a private contractor operating a federal detention center housing immigrant children near the border with Mexico. The $200,000 order, on which Wayfair stood to clear about $86,000 in profit, was just another business transaction for the company. For the Wayfair employees staging the protest, it was a stamp of approval for a reprehensible system that separates migrant families and imprisons children.

The employees had earlier signed onto a letter to executives asking the company to halt all current and future business with the government contractor and with other contractors operating migrant detention camps at the southern border. They demanded the company establish a code of ethics for business sales that “empowers Wayfair and its employees to act in accordance with our core values.” The employees also asked the company to donate profits from the sales to RAICES, a nonprofit that provides legal services to immigrants and refugees.

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The law

If the Wayfair employees were hoping to be covered by federal law, they’re probably out of luck. Unless Wayfair was breaking the law — which it wasn’t — or the federal government was acting in a way that infringed the workers’ civil rights, the U.S. Constitution offers no protection. 

But laws in many states do provide protections for political activities. Such laws may even include “free speech,” “political activity” or “off-duty conduct” protections that give employees rights against private employers not provided by federal law. If employees in those states are fired for protesting, they can assert that they’re being punished for exercising their free speech rights under state law. Wayfair employees may be able to rely on state law if their employer retaliates against them.

The perception

This isn’t a matter of Wayfair engaging in illegal activity — it’s in the business of selling furniture — it’s a matter of optics and corporate goodwill. Earlier this year, massive employee protests prompted technology giant Google to do away with forced arbitration in its employment agreements. Arbitration is perfectly legal in the workplace, but Google decided that it didn’t play well in the court of public opinion. 

Similar protests have driven changes to arbitration policies at Uber and FaceBook. With sufficient public pressure, Wayfair could find itself moving in this direction with the perfectly legal sale of furniture to the federal government. 

The balancing act

The Wayfair protest is, ultimately, a game of chicken. Someone in corporate management runs the numbers to see how much money Wayfair loses for every hour its employees don’t work. They weigh this against the anticipated profit from the contract and factor in the potential cost of a breach of contract claim against the company by the government contractor. 

But protesting employees must also consider the costs they pay. Will they lose their jobs? Will they suffer other forms of retaliation? How long can they afford to stay off the job? There is tremendous strength in numbers. It’s highly unlikely that Wayfair will fire the protesting employees: How can it replace and retrain that quickly? Additionally, the size of the protest ratchets up the pressure by putting it on front pages all over the country. The power of a mass protest is a far cry from one or two workers taking a stand.

The power of voices

The Wayfair protest is a clear sign of the times. A decade ago, well before the advent of social media and crowdsourcing, the mobilization of a massive protest in a single day would have been unthinkable. In today’s connected world, people who share a belief system come together instantaneously to drive change.

Protests such as Wayfair, the 99 Percenters and the Amazon carbon footprint will only become more frequent and more powerful as these technologies are harnessed. Individual voices will become megaphones. The smartest businesses will get ahead of the trend by understanding the power of those voices and really listening to stakeholders — whether employees, investors or customers. Companies that fail to respect this power — the ones that blow protests off — will likely be brought to their knees. 

Where will Wayfair land?

 

Author: Ron Zambrano, Litigation Chair of West Coast Employment Lawyers, represents employees in equal pay, workplace discrimination and harassment, wrongful termination, whistleblower protection, wage and hour, and other employment-related claims. Zambrano has won millions in lawsuits on behalf on aggrieved employees from all walks of life and backgrounds, including high-profile cases against the city of Los Angeles, the Long Beach Police Department, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Boeing, Ralphs Supermarket, Carmax, Wells Fargo, Walmart, Macy’s and Curacao.

 

GlassDoor.com | June 27, 2019

#CareerAdvice : #LaidOff – What Not to Do If you Get Laid Off or Fired.

When you’re out of work, no matter how you became unemployed, it’s tempting to dwell on what happened. That can be a dangerous road to go down, as focusing on the past can prevent you from achieving your future.

Yes, you may get asked about why you’re unemployed during a job interview, and it may be tempting to use that as a way to tell your side of the story. That, however, is a bad idea. Take the high road. Offer a factual answer, but don’t elaborate if at all possible–and bring up something positive.

Be upbeat even if you were wronged by your previous employer. Tell the truth, but keep it brief, and focus on your desire to find new challenges, not any bitterness you have over what happened.

1. NEVER DISPARAGE YOUR PAST EMPLOYER

In many industries, all of the major players–and maybe even the minor ones–know each other. The person interviewing you may know your past boss was difficult to work for or that the company has a terrible reputation.

That might lead the interviewer into opening the door to critiquing your past employer by leading off the criticism. Don’t take the bait. It’s fair to say “there were challenges, but I prefer to focus on what I learned from handling them.” Remember that even if the interviewer opens the door, you don’t have to walk through it.

 

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2. DON’T BASH YOUR OWN CHOICES

Focus on the opportunity ahead of you, not what might have gone wrong in the past. You, for example, may regret not leaving years ago–before a layoff or before market conditions forced you to quit. Don’t bring that up. Keep the conversation on the opportunities ahead of you, and use your past to demonstrate how you’ve built the skills for whatever is next.

It’s also important to make it clear that you’re excited about your future and not moving on because you have no choice. A lot of journalists, for example, have missed out on opportunities in public relations or other fields, because they spend time during interviews talking about the deterioration of their former profession. Employers want employees who want to be there, not people forced to do something else.

3. DON’T BE OVERLY WISTFUL

It’s fine to express admiration for your past employer. You don’t, however, want to act like a jilted boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe you would have been an employee at wherever you worked forever if it was your choice, but your new employer doesn’t want to hear that any more than a new person your dating wants to hear how you’d take your ex back in a heartbeat.

IT’S SMARTER TO FOCUS ON THE FUTURE

Answer any questions you’re asked truthfully, but try to make your interview about the future. Lay out how your skills and experience make you a great candidate. Have a positive attitude, even if you just went through some negative things, and let the past be the past.

 

FastCompany.com | January 22, 2019 | BY DANIEL B. KLINE—THE MOTLEY FOOL 2 MINUTE READ

#Leadership : How to Gain your #Employees Trust, take Care When #Changes Need to be Made…One of the Greatest Threats to #EmployeeEngagement is UnCeremonious or UnDignified Dismissals.

I was at a conference last month and had the chance to hear from several people who had read my book, “Fired:  How to Manage Your Career in the Age of Job Uncertainty.” One of them told me their organization was having to do a reduction in force. It was going to be a very difficult–the organization’s leaders truly cared about their employees. She then shared that  and her boss used the book to make sure as they planned the layoffs, they did everything they could to help the employees affected transition successfully.

Another person at the same conference told me that she too is having to look at organizational changes and that the book is helping her think more intentionally about those affected.

I am glad to see that my book is having an impact with leaders who truly care about their employees and their organization’s culture.  I had hoped it would help leaders with tough decisions as well as people at the other end of them.

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One of the greatest threats to employee engagement is unceremonious or undignified dismissals.  We’ve seen them in the news.  You may have witnessed them at work.  Someone is perp walked out the door.  Or at 4:55 pm there is an email saying someone “…is no longer with XYZ Company.” Or maybe you’ve heard managers blame or scape goat the person who was let go.  The remaining employees who see their friends treated poorly in a termination wonder, “Am I next?”   or “Is this company worth my loyalty?”

It is so difficult to let someone go, whether they “deserve” it or not.  Handling these gut wrenching decisions with grace and dignity helps leaders keep the trust with their employees.

As one of my book reviewers, John Franklin wrote,

“This is a must read for everyone, whether you have been fired or not, and in doing so, will expand our understanding of others and will make each of us more compassionate human beings.”

I am grateful that these leaders took the lessons learned in the book to heart.  Please share your stories with me as well on my web site www.jobuncertainty.com

Dr. Nancy Koury King is a contributing author on the FSC Career Blog (https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/) & is a participating member of the FSC LinkedIn Network ( www.linkedin.com/in/fscnetwork ) . 

As mentioned above, her publication of the book, “Fired:  How to Manage Your Career in the Age of Job Uncertainty”  & is available on Amazon below.

https://www.amazon.com/Fired-manage-your-career-uncertainty/dp/1978407130

 

First Sun Career Blog | April 10, 2018

#Leadership : How to Fire Someone So They’ll Thank You For It… Firing People is Never Fun, But it can Leave Everyone Better Off if it’s Done Right.

I described how our new CEO determined that we had to fire almost half our team. This sucked for many reasons, but the main one? It was emotional. Firing a terrible person is easy, but how do you fire a good person who is a bad fit in a way that doesn’t hurt them?

Free- Man at Desktop

In an earlier post, I described how our new CEO determined that we had to fire almost half our team. This sucked for many reasons, but the main one? It was emotional. Firing a terrible person is easy, but how do you fire a good person who is a bad fit in a way that doesn’t hurt them?

That was the next lesson from our new CEO, JT McCormick. He showed us how to fire someone, not just with dignity and respect, but in a way where they actually thank you for the experience. Literally, three of the five people he fired wrote him emails thanking him afterwards.

Here’s exactly what he did:

1. Transition from coaching them up, to coaching them out.

As I wrote in the last post, before you fire someone you should identify where they’re not performing, show them, set clear objectives, and give them the coaching they need to achieve them. If you’ve done this, and they nail it, grea — you won’t have to fire them.

As you are working through this process, you generally know if they are going to make it or not. If they don’t look like they’re going to make it, then the process to fire them starts. You start to move from from coaching them up, to coaching them out.

Related: ‘Mentoring’ and ‘Leadership Coaching’ Are Not the Same. Do You Know the Difference?

Done right, the processes naturally flow into each other, because they’re both about empathy. “Once you shift to coaching them out, it’s a very delicate series of conversations to get this person to see that they’re not a fit, see why they don’t fit and where they can’t grow with the company, and maybe see a path for them towards something else,” McCormick said. “The first coaching out conversation is diagnosing whether they’re not performing because they’re in the wrong chair. Ask them, ‘If you could do any job in the company, what would it be?'”

If you get a decisive answer, McCormick said, then you have to evaluate if they have the skills for that role. You can even test them in that role.

If you get an answer like, ‘I’m not sure’, then go one step further and ask them if they could create any role in the company — for themselves, what would it be? Have them describe the perfect job for themselves. “If they can’t tell you that,” McCormick said, “then it’s obvious, and not just to you. They’ll start to see this isn’t the place for them.

“The best result here is that they describe a job that does fit them really well, but does not exist in your company. Then they not only see that the company isn’t the right place for them, but that a place does exist for them somewhere else. So the real thing you’re trying to understand yourself, and help them to see, is not only are they not performing, but they’re probably not performing for a reason, and so the best thing possible for them is to move jobs.”

 

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2. Make the dismissal about their dignity and humanity, not corporate HR rules.

Once the decision has been made to fire them, it’s time to stop coaching them out, and fire them. Now you make it completely about them. During the firing conversation, don’t focus on why you’re firing them; that groundwork has been laid already. Now it’s time to help them.

In the firing conversation, McCormick said, don’t focus on the negatives of what they’ve done. “We’ve already talked about this over the past few weeks, so why do that? I’ll go over it quickly, and then move on. I want to focus on the best plan of action for the exit so this person can move on with their life. You want to do right by them.”

This also means not talking to them in a dry, corporate, distant style. It means talking to them and like a human, and treating them like someone you know and value and care about.

“Big corporations have turned firing conversations into these HR nightmares where they’re afraid to say or do anything,” McCormick said. “The conversations are so cold and cutthroat, they really dehumanize people. To hell with that. You know this person, they are a good person, treat them like it.”

Related: The Right Way to Fire An Employee

But this also means not pretending everything is fine. It’s not. They’re getting fired. “On the startup side,” he said, “the problem I see is that entrepreneurs let their feelings get in the way of saying what needs to be said. You have to be able to have a straight conversation with someone regarding the stark truth of what’s happening. Candor is a way of being kind.”

And sometimes, this means letting them say goodbye.

McCormick expands on that thought — “For many people, if they aren’t a complete asshole, you let them say goodbye, especially to the people they were friends with. Especially in startups where some of these folks were key in helping the growth of the company. You let that person save face and exit gracefully. You don’t escort them out with security, like they’re some animal. You treat them with respect by showing them you care about them.”

3. Let them know you will support them, and then actually do it.

That final conversation also needs to let them know, very clearly and specifically, what you are going to do to help them now. Remember — for you, this is the end of their tenure at your company. But they’re not dying. For them, this is their life.

For starters, McCormick said, his company gives the best severance package possible. “If possible, I like to pay eight weeks severance. To have a two month safety net to find their next opportunity really makes them feel safe and cared for, and they can relax,” he said.

McCormick tells employees not only will he write them a recommendation, but he’ll tell them what he’ll say in it. “I give them suggestions about what jobs to go after, based on our earlier conversations about what they want. I even offer to refer them to places I think they will be a good fit with.

“And most importantly,” he continues, “I tell them that this doesn’t have to be the end of our relationship. I’ll answer any questions, and I’ll give them any advice or help I can. Email me. Call me. Text me. I’m here for you if you need me. And I mean it. Most don’t take me up on this, but they still appreciate it, because they know it’s real. And they feel valued and cared for, even while being fired.”

And it works. Done correctly, McCormick said, the fired employees will learn a lot about themselves, and will eventually end up in a better place in their life because of what they learned from the process. “And they will email you and thank you afterwards.”

Related: The Secret to Becoming Exactly Who You Want to Be

I never would have believed this until I saw it happen. Three different people from our company sent our CEO thank you emails after they left. His coaching had helped them see things about themselves, and his candor and kindness had been a real benefit to them.

Firing people is never fun, but it can leave everyone better off if it’s done right.

#Leadership : 5 Signs it’s Time to Fire Your Problem Employee…As a Manager, It’s your Job to Deal with Tough Employees.

Career Guidance

About The Author

Ashley Faus is a marketing professional at a presentation company in Mountain View, CA. She writes about corporate, marketing, and MBA topics on her blog, consciouslycorporate.com. When she’s not in classes for her MBA, Ashley enjoys working out, scrapbooking, and performing in musicals.