Living in Layoff Land

to come

Source: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels

One of the main differences between working life today and, say, half a century ago is the basic degree of confidence that you'll continue to have a job. We like to think of economic progress as generally moving in a positive direction; well, this is one economic area that isn't.

In the good old days (at least they were good in this regard), you could be quite confident that if your company was doing OK and you as an employee were doing OK, there would continue to be a job there for you.

Sadly, that easy confidence is long gone. Today, there's a reasonable chance that even if your company is doing well (indeed, possibly highly profitable) and you're a good, solid employee, you still may end up out of work.

You may find yourself the victim of a preemptive layoff, a reorganization, rightsizing, downsizing...whatever you want to call it, or whatever tactic management may choose to protect profitability at the expense of employee security.

Layoff Mode

These thoughts were on my mind recently when I came across an article noting that 70 percent of workers were taking some steps to prepare for layoffs. Don't get me wrong, preparation and planning aren't bad things, but I believe it's a sad state of affairs when a large segment of the American workforce is constantly in layoff mode.

The same article reported that 57 percent of Gen Z workers were living in a state of "layoff anxiety," and 40 percent of all employees said if they were laid off they'd probably run out of money in about a month.

None of these statistics are even remotely close to what I'd call symptoms of a healthy working environment.

Harsh Capitalism

A bit of management history here. Jack Welch, the famed former CEO of General Electric, is generally credited with (if you call it that) laying folks off even if he didn't need to as a means of meeting aggressive quarterly earnings goals.

This tactic was applauded by Wall Street investors, but not by the tens of thousands of good employees whose lives were disrupted in the process. This whole sorry story is described eloquently and in considerable detail in The Man Who Broke Capitalism by David Gelles. Economist Robert Reich has called this phase of U.S. economic history "harsh capitalism." The descriptor feels entirely reasonable.

Researching Organizations

A bit of personal history: As a veteran of about 500 reorganizations and layoffs (OK, slight exaggeration, but I did go through plenty), I can attest, as the survey numbers above suggest, that they're a suboptimal environment to work in. "Reorgs" breed stress. They cause anxiety. Depending on the outcome, they may lead to life-altering economic and personal problems.

Why wouldn't they? In layoff mode, the overarching question coursing through employees' minds is a simple one: At the end of this process, will I or won't I have a job?, closely followed by: What will happen to my income and savings?

Given this unfortunate state of affairs, a natural question is: What can be done by individual job seekers to help deal with such powerful employment trends?

One suggestion I have is that when you're looking for a job, research the company you're considering. This can take the form of online sleuthing or even questions asked (tactfully) during a job interview.

For example, try to find out whatever you can about the health and stability of the organization. Do they seem to be a good, stable, reliable employer, or do they have a history of layoffs and financial problems? How do they feel about reorganizations? Do they have many long-service employees? You can do online research, and, if asked thoughtfully and diplomatically, these are fair questions to ask in a job interview to gain insight into the nature of a corporate culture.

Just as a company is interviewing you, you are interviewing a company. If your (worthy) goal is to be a good long-term employee, it's appropriate to assess whether a potential new organization is likely to be a good long-term employer.