Surviving Employees:  Strategies for Coping with Workplace Change

What happens to the employees who remain after a reduction in the workforce? Most employers do a good job of providing a safety net to the laid-off employees including, counseling, outplacement, extension of benefits, etc. However, an organization cannot forget about the tremendous psychological effects staff reductions have on surviving employees. This article tells you:

• The Reactions "Survivors" Might Have

• What Employers/Supervisors Can Do to help Survivors

• What Employees Can Do to Cope with Workplace Change

Reactions “Survivors” Might Have

• Anxiety: They may be worried they are the next to go, waiting for the “other shoe to fall.” They have experienced a trauma in which they feared for their jobs and their ability to provide for their families.

• Guilt: Some employees may feel guilty that they stayed, while others who desperately needed a job had to go.

• Depression: Surviving employees may become depressed when friends and coworkers lose their jobs. There is a significant change in their social network and work team. The loss of those coworkers can be upsetting.

• Uncertainty and Confusion: Surviving employees may be uncertain about how reduced staff will handle heavier work loads. They may feel uncertainty, resentment and confusion about their responsibilities or what is expected of them as they are asked to handle the workloads of former employees.

• Me not We: When the working environment is insecure, employees often move self-preservation to the top of their agenda. The basic need for security has been threatened, and employees will be highly concerned with protecting their jobs and their ability to provide for their families.

• Leaving: Some employees may leave physically, deciding to pursue something different or more stable. Other employees may stay with the organization, but “leave” mentally, becoming less involved and less satisfied with the work - “resigning” while staying on the job.

What Employers/Supervisors can do to help Survivors

• Communicate as soon as possible - As soon as there are any facts about reduction, announce them, even in a general way.

• Communicate why - Not everyone will be happy about the news, however, organizations want their employees to know that what they are doing is the best course of action based on alternatives. Therefore, it’s important to take people through the alternatives management had to consider. This may help people come to the same conclusion about the reduction necessity.

• Communicate the plan - Organizations want the employees to know they have their best interests at heart. Convey the long-range plan, and that the plan may change in response to external factors. The more this plan is shared with employees, the more comfortable they will be with the decisions that affect them.

• Time to Grieve - Give opportunities for both “leavers” and “survivors” to deal with endings. Reducing the workforce disrupts relationships, and one of the reactions to these changes is grief. Encourage openness and honesty, and allow employees to express the feelings that accompany the grieving process.

• Retraining and Support - Provide opportunities for training and support for survivors who must assume new functions and a greater workload.

• Be Visible - Throughout the reduction process be visible to your employees. Make yourself available for communication, showing your concern for the struggles of surviving employees. Provide updates, even when there is no news.

• Gather Information - Talk to remaining staff to identify important issues. This can be done informally with local management. Measure the damage to morale and involve staff in brainstorming ways to handle the workload, move forward, or work together better.

• Stress Value and Future - Recognize individual employees’ unique contributions to the organization. Express appreciation. Talk with employees about the organization’s vision for the future of doing business and how surviving employees can benefit from it. Enhance survivors’ feelings of self-worth and security.

• Involve Employees - Involve the workforce in team brainstorming and other problem-solving activities. This not only stimulates creativity, but rebuilds relationships and can increase involvement and morale. The more employees are involved in regrouping, the less likely they will feel like victims.

• Be Patient - Even after changes have occurred, human transitions take time. No matter what you do, the workplace atmosphere may remain a little hairy for a while. Provide plenty of coaching and support to help survivors become re-established physically and emotionally in the “new” organization.

What Employees Can Do to Cope with Workplace Change

• Take Charge:  Plan in advance how you will respond to the changed workplace environment, or, if you are furloughed or laid off, what steps you will take to manage your job-search, your finances, and your home life. Write your ideas down. Prioritize the most important steps. For example, when will you update your resume, when will you make contacts to further your job hunt, when will you begin looking at other job-hunt resources such as the classified ads.  How will you manage the stress and anxiety that can be expected?

• Talk:  When change does occur, feelings may be both positive and negative, and often both at the same time. These are normal responses, to be expected. Identify one or two or a few people in whom you can confide about the personal impacts of the changes.  It is often a relief to hear that others have similar concerns, and you may gain useful information from others’ ideas of how to handle the situation.  Don’t allow yourself to be isolated with your concerns. However, don’t limit your conversations to people who are feeling enraged or despairing about the situation; try to seek out people who have a sense of hope and some good ideas about managing the situation. 

• Maintain a Realistic Outlook:  Unrealistic expectations can be a tremendous source of stress and unnecessary suffering.   Unfortunately, when organizations undergo downsizing, restructuring, or other major change, a whole host of unspoken, and sometimes unrealistic, expectations can arise.  Upper management may expect, for example, that increased productivity will occur, even though the workforce has been seriously reduced.  Employees, on the other hand, may expect management to be able to solve problems for which there are no ready solutions. Remind yourself that some problems can be solved with direct action, and some require passage of time and ongoing analysis before meaningful steps can be taken.  

• Improve Lines of Communication:  Clear communication is of greatest importance during times of upheaval. Don’t get into rumor-based discussions, and don’t share unsubstantiated information. In seeking information, be specific: what is known about ___ at this time? When can we expect to know more? Are there options, or is there only one way? If there are options, what are they? Do they apply to me, or only to some categories of employees?        If you are an information provider, be specific: acknowledge what you know, and equally important, acknowledge what you don’t know. Offer specific target dates for updates, and even if there is no new information, update people at that time. People would rather hear that there is no new information, than wonder why you haven’t been in touch. 

• Use and Grow Your Coping Skills:  The body and mind respond to unwanted changes in a number of ways, including the release of stress-related hormones that can disrupt sleep and appetite. You may find yourself irritable, sad, resentful, and feeling disorganized or overwhelmed. The best ways of caring for yourself, so that your energy for coping with the situation can be as great as possible, and your mind at its clearest, include the following:

• Exercise, even just a little: If you’re already an exerciser, it’s important to keep it going. While staying within your level of fitness, doing a little more than usual will be beneficial. If you haven’t exercised in a while, or have health conditions, just adding a short daily walk at a gentle pace has proven effects in reducing stress, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and appetite disturbance. If you’re not sure if exercise is appropriate for you, call your doctor’s office and ask.

• Maintain a schedule. See No. 1 above. The loss of the routine that is built into a work-schedule is one of the most difficult things about a job layoff. Get up at a predictable time each day, and go to bed at a predictable time. Don’t watch more TV than you used to. For each day, plan the steps you are going to take, and do most important things first. Treat the hunt like a job. 

• Relax your body: The stress of change can readily turn into aching muscles and headaches if we ignore the body’s needs. Take a few minutes each day to gently stretch and relax your body (handout attached). 

• Calm Your Mind: One of the common signs of stress is noticing that your mind is filled with a ruckus of competing thoughts, demands, and worries, making it hard to think clearly about any one. Take a few minutes each day, at any time of day it can be worked in, to deliberately allow your mind to quiet and slow. Even a very few minutes per day can have cumulative calming effects, allowing you to do the things you have to do with greater focus. This is especially important if you find that you are feeling ‘scattered’, having difficulty deciding what to do first, or feeling stuck by having too many demands simultaneously (handout attached).

• Use Distraction: Plan some time each day where you deliberately get involved in things that have nothing to do with the job situation. At this time in your life, it’s not just fun, but also important to read that enjoyable book, watch that favorite video, listen to some music you really enjoy, catch that favorite TV show. These activities calm the mind and reduce the body’s physiological stress response. It’s not self-indulgent to do some things for fun; it’s self-preservation!

Sources: Downsizing: Minimizing the Impact on Victims, Beverly Smallwood, Ph.D., 2002, www.magneticworkplaces.com Assisting Layoff Survivors, HR Tools.com, www.hrtools.com Handling Layoffs: Survivors Need Help Too, Amy Knierim, AHI Employment Law Resource Center, www.ahipubs.com

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