Saturday, February 14, 2009

When it comes to layoffs, lay on the thanks


I held the door for a neighbor. She breezed through without a word of thanks.

No eye contact. No acknowledgment. No gratitude. Just an attitude of entitlement, a princess on parade.

As the economy crumbles and millions lose their jobs, this scenario happens again and again. The enterprise stumbles, and loyal employees are shown the door without a hint of gratitude.
Some are marched off the premises by security guards, lest they sabotage, say, the computer network. It is humiliating, and it brands the fired employee as unstable, a problem to be managed, certainly not a person deserving respect.

Some receive impersonal notices telling them not to report for duty on Monday; they're no longer needed. It's time for "lean and mean," and sloths must go. Or so goes the implied message.

Higher-ups get golden parachutes and severance packages and don't face the same economic peril as paycheck-to-paycheck wage earners. Even so, they experience the same cold conversations and lawyer-designed exit interviews.

On their way out the door, they sense the same averted eyes, shunned handshakes and thinly disguised relief that the one's going enables the other's staying.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090214/LIVING09/902140380/1111/LIVING09

No comments: