Employees Beware: How to Handle Downsizing When You Stay With the Company
I came across a book the other day titled, You Majored in What? Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career by Katharine Brook, ED.D. Flipping through the pages it looked like an informative read with useful career strategies. But I had a gnawing sensation that I picked up the book because it reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a client that was overwhelmed by the amount of work she had facing her daily amidst staff cutbacks, new initiatives and increased accountability. Even though she is a seasoned professional the woman questioned the validity of her degree in her current position. Unfortunately, this is a common scenario in the era of downsizing. The client was seeking advice on whether to leave the company, speak to senior management or continue at her position in hopes that the work would soon stabilize. Given the client’s situation, Coach Nanci thought of a possible sequel to Dr. Brook’s book. It could be called Mapping Your Path from Career to Chaos: How to Handle the Change.
Much is written about why companies use downsizing as a corporate strategy to increase or stabilize profits to keep the company solvent. Some pundits even speculate that downsizing is the negative result of poor business strategy during prosperous times. Downsizing is widely popular in tough economic times when terms like “lean and mean” become tag lines for companies during restructuring. According to wiseGEEK, “downsizing is a commonly used euphemism which refers to reducing overall size and operating costs of a company, most directly through reduction in the total number of employees.” Unfortunately, the employee who stays takes the brunt of the seesaw juggling that occurs during downsizing.
Complaints like those of my client are both audible and silent depending on the personal situation of the employee. The prevalent attitude of management is that the employees are lucky that they kept their jobs. My client’s company has been steadily downsizing for the last three years. There has been an unofficial hiring freeze. Any jobs that were lost through attrition, the personnel were not replaced. The remaining employees have had to restructure, rework and consolidate duties to deliver company services. Management did not provide training to the remaining employees on unfamiliar job functions nor did they give adequate incentive for employees to seek education on their own. The job my client’s education prepared her for has morphed into a continuum of putting out fires, working on unfamiliar projects and keeping current on her job duties.
Has downsizing in your company changed how you feel about your current position? Change is inevitable but change due to downsizing does not have to alter your career plans. How can you keep your career on track and dispel the negative effects of downsizing?
• Be proactive even though the company is in a reactive mode
• Visit Human Resources to review your job description
• Meet with your manager to discuss where you fit in the reorganization of the company
• Discuss with manager projected timelines for consolidation of duties
• Offer suggestions to management on ways to work more efficiently
• Seek training for unfamiliar duties (preferably turnkey)
• Plan time to relieve stress during business hours (take a walk at lunch time, use of gym)
• Realign work schedule to reflect new responsibilities
• Network with other departments
• Update manager on your progress
• Stay aware of the best practices in your industry
• Commit to updating your education
Downsizing has not proven to be the panacea business pretends it is. Statistics show that well over 60% of companies that engage in downsizing, retooling, and restructuring as a means to change profitability do not get the prolonged boost expected. In fact quite the opposite is true. Unhappy employees create havoc on a business bottom line. Employees are the human capital that is the most valuable resource of most businesses. The costs attributed to employee low morale, exiting, survivor guilt, overwork, frustration, absenteeism and confusion is rarely accounted for in the original equation of renewed profitability through downsizing.
Coach Nanci has the following advice for companies who are considering downsizing:
• Communicate with your employees before you take any action that involves them
• Explain the company situation in terms employees understand
• Seek employee suggestions on how to do the work more efficiently (the people who do the work are the best resource not management)
• Turnkey retraining (use the expertise you have in your employees to rebuild)
• Reduce management perks (travel, bonus percentages, business expense accounts)
• If you have to eliminate positions do it proportionally
• Praise employees for tightening belts and incentives for cost saving ideas
• Communicate! Communicate! Communicate! Manage Up and Down
For more ideas on how to be proactive in your career take a look at Juggling Elephants in the APLS Online Store.
