In many cases, layoffs often shake up workers’ loyalty and sense of purpose at an organisation. “Job security is crucial for someone to be willing to go the extra mile for an employer,” says Sajjadiani. “Ultimately, employment is a transactional relationship: it’s a contract between employer and employee. If one party doesn’t commit to it, it soon falls apart.”
Indeed, layoffs “can sow seeds of doubt for employees”, says Jim Link, chief human resources officer at the Society for Human Resource Management (Shrm), based in Virginia, US.
Next, employees losing colleagues, friends and close working relationships in one fell swoop can compound these feelings. “It’s the concept of job embeddedness: when people work together, it creates an invisible web of social connections between co-workers,” adds Sajjadiani. “When that’s broken apart as a result of layoffs, that creates a psychological impact.”
Subsequently, job cuts can leave remaining workers burdened with feelings of remorse, loss and uncertainty. Practically, workers are also left with the stress of being expected to do more with less, adds Link. “They may also worry about being under-resourced, and left with greater job responsibilities following layoffs: friends and colleagues go away, but the work doesn’t.”
As peers face redundancy, one reason the highest-performing workers may particularly run to other roles, says Sajjadiani, is that “departmental cuts often mean that top performers and managers lose their jobs. It sends the signal to high-performing colleagues to seek opportunities and secure employment elsewhere” – especially as they may have better labour-market prospects.
This manifests similarly for voluntary quits, she adds. “But compared to resignations, the process with layoffs is intensified. They think, ‘I’m next, I need to save myself’.”
Of course, not every employee who wants to leave after a round of layoffs can. Yet the instinct to go will still be there for many workers. And this means they’ll keep an eye out for other opportunities – even if they can’t leave as urgently as they’d like, especially in sectors that are experiencing wide-scale headcount reductions among many companies.
“Thinking about leaving [after layoffs] is an almost inevitable response – they may just not be able to act upon it,” says Sajjadiani. “But actually leaving depends entirely on whether there are opportunities in the job market. They’ll certainly be on the lookout.”
#save #layoffs #workers #quit
