This happened a while ago but I’m still wondering about it… is it weird that your boss would be laid off but you would not be officially notified (if not right before or after, maybe sometime that day?) I’m still at the same place
If it’s just your boss that’s being laid off (well, your boss + others), that’s typically not something announced to the masses. It comes out through the grapevine, but there’s no e-mail that goes out about it beyond perhaps a general “you may hear about a reduction in staff … this is a difficult time for affected individuals, please be considerate” comment.
Could be worse. Could be there’s a “reorganization” where affected individuals are told immediately before the announcement they’re being cut loose effective immediately. Could be a reorg and people find out about it during the announcement because they’re no longer on the org chart. Could be that people randomly start disappearing after being called to a “quick meeting” and then security shows up to box their stuff and you never see them again.
Masses maybe not, but at least his immediate team?
More detail:
Different boss from my other posts.I was going up to their office to see them and some random person not on their team was the one to tell me. (Pretty sure they weren’t the messenger of anyone more official).
Yes, that’s weird. Layoffs are often kept quiet, but ordinarily the person’s immediate supervisor learns shortly before, and the person’s immediate reports are told shortly after, if only to let them know to whom they now report.
Could be that nothing has been said because TPTB are trying to decide how the subordinates will be assigned to remaining managers. But in that case, I would have expected that there would be no announcement to the affected manager until that detail was taken care of.
Or, maybe nothing has been communicated and the random person learned from someone who knows and probably shouldn’t have said anything at all yet. Awkward, but happens on occasion.
The person was gone in the morning, I was randomly told late afternoon, and I don’t think anyone mentioned anything officially ever, just took it for granted I found out maybe a day or two later. So it’s not a case of no advance notice…
It’s kind of counterproductive managing because for a month or 2 I spent a little more time trying to keep up with gossip than I could have…
OK … that is weird. Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard, but how does a senior manager get released and none of the underlings knows anything about it until they’re just gone.
Well, unless they’re following the model I saw one ex-employer use to whittle down its workforce without having to do a layoff for the first time in company history, but I’m guessing you don’t work there and I know the people involved in that instance are all fully retired, just like they were fully retired when they were working at the ex-employer.
Was it on a Friday?
Weird, but not surprising.
It was not Friday if I recall correctly.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some others on my team were officially told, but I never asked.
Lesson to learn from all of this: quit managing and get better gossip so the rest of us can be involved in someone else’s office politics vicariously.
Hmmm, when my penultimate employer did layoffs it went as follows:
A) Notify the whole company that a bunch of them are getting laid off (mid-morning Day 1).
B) Notify individuals they are laid off (30 minutes after A).
C) Department meetings for every department reviewing new org chart (afternoon Day 2).
Positively zero actual work got done between A and B. Very little work was done on the remainder of Day 1. Day 2 was not super productive either. By Day 3 there was starting to be some recognition that yeah, I guess we should get back to work now.
Most people were out of the building forever within 90 minutes of the layoff notifications. A few of the laid off folks (including a VP in actuarial who had a bunch of direct reports) had to come back to work on Day 3 for a specified period of time that varied by individual. They were allowed to go home after learning the news on Day 1 and then take all of Day 2 off as well and then come back to work on Day 3. They basically had to comply or no severance.
I think Day 1 was a Thursday, Day 2 Friday and Day 3 Monday.
And, RNN.
Immediate layoffs with lots of severance and clear communication is the best way to do it to minimize distraction and get back to working imo.
If the severance is known to be good people wouldn’t panic as bad every time the slightest rumor emerges, but senior management can be pound foolish.
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