Communicating job losses

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Shel Holtz, personal hero of mine and countless thousands of other business communicators, has timely advice on how organisations should be communicating staff reductions.

He offers nine tips forged from the fires of his own long experience in such things. Here’s one:

Don’t spin it. Layoffs are ugly, unpleasant, and emotional. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous. The best you can do is minimize the pain. Call it what it is—it’s a layoff, not a RIF or an exercise in “rightsizing.” (I hate “rightsizing.” If you didn’t need all those extra people, why’d you hire them in the first place?)

There is a whole stack of goodness in his post — I strongly suggest you do yourself and your organisation a favour and read it. Email senior management a link to the article. Print out copies for colleagues if they don’t/aren’t allowed to read blogs. Spread the word, because more and more job losses are expected here in Australasia over the coming months.

Thanks, Shel (and ‘rightsizing’ has been one of my pet ‘fuglys’ for decades).

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