This post is a follow-up to an earlier blog post, The Burden of Leadership. A lot of people have recently been laid off around BC, and being a friend to some people in this position, I've acted as a shoulder to lean on and an active listener for them to talk through their thinking.
It's a crappy situation all around, and definitely a terrible experience for the period following in life for those who are laid off. That said, I've come across an article that offered another perspective that I'd like to point out. Please see below for an excerpt from an article by Karen Althen, titled What 1,700 laid-off Target employees can learn (from someone who was downsized by the company 6 years ago), originally posted on BizJournal
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Executives are humans
This one might raise a few eyebrows, but I've also been on the other side of laying people off. It sucks — no matter how tenured and tough you are, it's generally not human nature to deliberately hurt someone else. You can't help but have some emotions tied to it, even if not outwardly shown.
Yes, big paychecks and "golden parachutes" might soften the blow for upper management, but most executives will tell you they did not delight in making a decision to let people go or delivering the news of a layoff.
I was working at Northwest Airlines on 9/11 and was fully prepared to lose my job. Instead, I was promoted and learned that my whole team would be laid off the following day. I didn't sleep a wink and was literally sick to my stomach with having this news in my head for the next 12 hours. It's not fun for anyone. It's easy to criticize leadership, but these positions also carry heavy burdens and responsibility that most people would not want.