{"id":330,"date":"2011-10-05T10:38:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T17:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/markccrowley.com\/site\/?p=330"},"modified":"2011-10-05T10:38:24","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T17:38:24","slug":"man-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-wmplo.xyz\/mark-c-divi5\/man-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Up!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LayoffI had coffee with an old friend this week and, by the end of our conversation, I had the content for this week\u2019s post.<\/p>\n

My friend, Kelsey, was a human resources manager when I first met her 30 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0Sitting across from her in her office one afternoon, I endured the most grueling and stressful interview of my life.\u00a0\u00a0Gratefully, things worked out and she hired me into my first career-level position after college; we\u2019ve been friends ever since.<\/p>\n

As background, Kelsey is characteristically no nonsense and direct in her business dealings, and not generally one who displays her feelings to others.\u00a0\u00a0She\u2019s the managing director of an executive outplacement firm that provides professional coaching to employees who\u2019ve lost their jobs through layoff or job elimination.<\/p>\n

Over the past several years, her firm has been extremely busy.\u00a0\u00a0Not only have more managers been out of work, but new career opportunities have been scarce.\u00a0\u00a0As a result, she and her team have had to work longer to help clients define their strengths, construct effective resumes and prepare themselves for interviews to compete for prime positions.<\/p>\n

That it\u2019s taking people longer to find employment has changed the dynamics of Kelsey\u2019s job.\u00a0\u00a0Where in the past, her relationships with clients were brief and superficial, recently she\u2019s had time \u2013 and had to take the time \u2013 to know them more personally.\u00a0\u00a0And because Kelsey\u2019s been able to establish greater intimacy with these clients, she made an interesting discovery.<\/p>\n

Kelsey found that many people were stymied (paralyzed even) in their efforts to move forward in their job search because they lacked meaningful resolution with their previous employer.<\/p>\n

Over and over, clients described the same process of how they were let go.<\/p>\n

Managers in charge of communicating the layoffs seemed inclined to quickly get in and get out \u2013 almost as if they were being asked to identify a dead body in a morgue.\u00a0\u00a0They spoke from scripts, focused exclusively on the severance package the employee was receiving \u2013 often emphasizing how generous it was \u2013 and concluded the meeting quickly.<\/p>\n

What these managers rarely did, however, was to come from their heart and treat the worker like a human being.\u00a0\u00a0Ignored were all the years of service and contribution.\u00a0\u00a0More than anything, laid off employees wanted to hear someone say \u201cthank you\u2026what you did here mattered\u2026 for that, we will always be grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now whenever Kelsey learns a company is about to layoff workers, she insists on coaching managers beforehand and directing them on how to most effectively conduct the meetings.<\/p>\n

Tied to everything she\u2019s learned, she now tells managers to \u201cMan Up!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0She emphasizes that they do profound damage to people through their perceived indifference and reminds them that as painful as the experience is for them \u2013 it\u2019s far worse for the person losing their job.<\/p>\n

While Kelsey wants business leaders to treat laid-off workers more kindly and humanly, she also reminds them that how they regard workers on the way out has a significant effect on all employees who remain.<\/p>\n

If you would like to receive my Blogs directly, please sign up here!<\/a><\/p>\n

PS: \u00a0After this article was posted, all of the social media counters on our website mysteriously reverted to zeros — and all historical share counts were lost.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0All links now are working!
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had coffee with an old friend this week and, by the end of our conversation, I had the content for this week\u2019s post. My friend, Kelsey, was a human resources manager when I first met her 30 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0Sitting across from her in her office one afternoon, I endured the most grueling and stressful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,14,15,16],"tags":[21,39,42,44,54,72,73,110,126,127,143,197,233],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifeaffairs","category-heartleadershipinpractice","category-leadership","category-lifelessons","category-wisdomefromotherauthors","tag-accountability","tag-business","tag-care","tag-ceo","tag-corporate-values","tag-employee-engagement","tag-employee-satisfaction","tag-human-resources","tag-layoffs","tag-leadership-2","tag-management","tag-success","tag-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\nMan Up! - Mark C. 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