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Here is my second Forum post. This one is also touches on one my favorite topics – careers
Another week. Another flood of LinkedIn goodbye posts.
Talented people thanking colleagues after being locked out of their systems. No chance to pack their desks. No final email. No dignity.
Some companies now send layoff notices at 3:00 a.m. Others run two Zoom calls at the same time—one for those “safe,” another for those gone. Ten minutes. Meeting over.
Let me ask this plainly: When did this become acceptable?
And to those still employed—are you relieved? Or just quietly shaken, wondering when it’s your turn?
I use the word love deliberately. When employees are treated as expendable line items, layoffs become the easiest lever to pull. Convenient. Fast. Emotionless.
But organizations that truly believe “people are our greatest asset” don’t behave this way. They hire carefully. They plan responsibly. And when separation is unavoidable, they act like adults—with empathy, transparency, and respect.
I’ve laid people off in my 40-year career. I’m not proud of it—but I am proud of how it was done. Performance-based. Thoughtful. Humane. People were given time, support, and their self-worth intact.
That standard is disappearing.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Large companies need collective representation for salaried employees and managers. Especially when mass layoffs are on the table. Decisions of this magnitude should not happen behind closed doors with only financial voices in the room.
This isn’t about protecting poor performance. It’s about protecting basic human decency.
Maybe it’s time to study how parts of Europe and Asia handle workforce reductions—what they get right, and what we can do better. And maybe—just maybe—the Chief People Officer should have as much influence in the C-suite as the CFO.
So I’ll ask what many are afraid to say out loud: Have we lost our values when it comes to layoffs—or do we still have the courage to reclaim them?
👇 Thoughts? Disagreements? Hard truths? Let’s talk. #layoffs #careers #values #culture
“Large companies need collective representation for salaried employees and managers.”
Agree 100%. Bring the spirit of ’76 into the 21st century – No work without representation!
I was working at a place with a layoff going on.
A gal left the bosses office crying after being laid off. I’m ashamed now that I thought that’s the way the world works.
But I realize now, that is exactly what US colonists thought in 1760 – that’s the way the
world works with the UK running America with no say from those affected.
People affected by potential layoffs SHOULD have a say, and a look at the true financials.
If there is legitimate hard times, they can make collective decisions that may be much better.
For instance, volunteers working less hours.
Instead of brutal layoffs like the gal who might have just got a huge mortgage.
Especially when so many layoffs are just to shovel even more $$$ into the CEO’s grubby hands, including massive golden parachutes when they do a lousy job.
A business isn’t a democracy: it’s a for-profit organisation owned by the people who put their capital at risk. Ownership carries the right of control, full stop, and that holds whether you have two employees or twenty thousand. Employees are absolutely entitled to the wages they’ve earned and to respect — but that entitlement stops well short of representation on strategic and operational decisions. That authority belongs to the owners, or to the management they choose to delegate it to. Handing control to people who bear none of the financial risk is simply unfair to those who put up the money.
I ran a small business with around fifty employees. The idea that I should have been legally or morally required to consult them on running my own company is frankly absurd. Want a say in how the business is run? Put financial skin in the game. That changes the equation entirely
.
Thank goodness the Continental Army was not represented by a labor union.