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The Boston Globe - Helping Layoff Survivors Cope
The Boston Globe
Page: H1
Section: Boston Works
By Jerry Ackerman, Globe Correspondent
WOBURN, MA - With the number of job cuts nationally this year pushing toward the 2 million mark, there's been plenty of pain to go around, not only among those who are out of work but also among those who still have employment.
Sometimes calling themselves "the walking wounded," these survivors talk fondly in the parking lot and at lunch about their former colleagues and the friendships that formed on the job. Passing now-empty desks, they grieve and hope they won't be among the next casualties of downsizing. But a shift in thinking by companies facing layoff situations may have spared some of them from more suffering. Haunted by horror stories about tactics such as the group firings that demoralized remaining employees during recession-driven layoffs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, some managers say they are striving to ease the pain among those still on the job.
This time around, human resources executives from high-tech to health care say it is important to maintain morale, beginning by assuring employees that everyone let go was treated fairly.
"These are the people who are left running the company," said Susan H. Bowman, executive vice president for human resources at Genuity Inc., an Internet services and network provider hit hard by a business downturn.
"One of the best things you can do for these people who stay is to demonstrate to them that you are treating the people who are leaving with respect," she said.
At UMass Memorial Health Care's three hospitals in Worcester, where a restructuring last summer led to about 340 layoffs, human resources director Jose Ramirez concurred that "humane and respectful" treatment is critical.
"In a health care institution you have certain obligations to your patients," Ramirez said. "You have to make sure there is an appropriate transition. The one thing you cannot do is to take a short cut in patient care."
Consultants who help companies carry out restructuring-induced layoffs say these attitudes represent a trend that reflects better understanding of organizational psychology.
Some of the change is motivated by the need to restore profits or, at nonprofits, balance the books. Demoralization in the office can quickly damage customer relations, says Dianne Durkin, whose New Castle, N.H., company, Loyalty Factor, teaches employees customer satisfaction techniques.
"The people who are left behind start looking behind their backs and saying, `Am I next?' They need to be rejuvenated, so they can refocus on the future. Honesty and integrity are the core of this," Durkin said.
David M. Noer, a Greensboro, N.C., consultant who has researched the effects of layoffs on those who stay, urges companies to consider conducting symbolic mock funerals for the employees no longer around, "to facilitate emotional release or grieving" among those still on the job.
These "may be a little extreme for some organizations," he says, "but people who stay are suffering from fear and anxiety and frustration. They are having some really debilitating feelings."
Elaine Varelas of Keystone Partners, an HR consulting firm in Boston, however, says this goes too far. "Yes, you need closure," she said. But this can be done by keeping survivors posted about "who has landed a job, who is now consulting or freelancing, what else they are doing" - and by encouraging direct support. "If someone wants to know what has happened to Alice, they should call Alice," she said.
Like many Massachusetts companies, Genuity, which moved into new headquarters in Woburn only last February, was hit hard by the current recession.
A year ago, it was hiring an average of nine employees a day to meet expected revenue growth of 60 percent in 2001, Bowman said. Instead, revenue went flat, and last May the company began re structuring to cut costs. By Nov. 30, employment at facilities in Massachusetts, Texas, and California had been slashed to 3,766 from a peak last March of 5,280 - a drop of nearly 30 percent, with a few more layoffs likely.
Genuity expected morale to suffer. "Intuitively you have to know that people are distracted by these events," Bowman said in an interview. So the company mapped a termination program that would display compassion.
"We would never bring a group of people into a room and tell them they were all laid off," Bowman said, recalling similar events at other companies in the past. Instead, affected employees got the bad news individually, from managers they knew personally and who had been given special training in how to handle the situation.
Once the pink slips were out, managers conducted small group meetings to lay out details of how each worker still on the job would be affected. The next day, Genuity chief executive Paul R. Gudonis presided over companywide meetings to assure those who were staying that their services were valued. He also announced new employee stock options to replace those that had become nearly worthless.
"He made the point that this was something that was meant to get their heads and hearts back on track," Bowman said.
Genuity is surveying employees to learn if its measures had the desired effect. In the meantime, some workers say they found relief just knowing "whether they were staying or going," said Randy Zinkus, manager of a major customer service center in Woburn.
"We've come to recognize we want to see this company succeed," Zinkus said. "We've realized that they were not doing this for sport."
In the health care industry, the economic downturn and changed federal reimbursement policies have also prompted restructurings and layoffs to cut operating costs. UMass Memorial's human resources chief, Ramirez, a veteran in managing other large-scale downsizings at Digital Equipment Corp. and BankBoston Corp., said he was ready.
"The old ways - that's not the way we do it here," Ramirez said. "From the get-go, one of the principles we established was to make sure that the process was humane and respectful."
Again it fell to line managers, who knew their employees best, to deliver the termination notices and then to "have conversations with their employees . . . to discuss the fact that difficult decisions were made," Ramirez said.
Outplacement advisers and the state's Division of Employment Services were brought in to help departing workers find new jobs. Employee assistance program counselors were also put on alert.
UMass Memorial phased the departures over several weeks, Ramirez said, knowing that health providers tend to put patient welfare ahead of their own during crises.
Rather than hold a systemwide meeting, UMass Memorial left ceremonies and speeches up to individuals and their departments. Top administrators also began visiting every department, inviting questions and discussion about policies and goals.
Ramirez considers communication critical in maintaining morale. "You cannot communicate too much."
Jerry Ackerman is a freelance writer. He can be reached via e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..