A Cry Heard Round The World: Kim Sun-Il died desperate and alone, but he did not die unheard.
Looking At And Longing For Mars: Reflections on a childhood dream.
A Robot May Not Harm a Human Being. Is The Opposite True?: Thoughts on the future rights of artificial intelligence.
Long After The Boys Of Summer Have Gone: What makes a relationship work?
Winter Of Our Feline Discontent: What the cat wants, the cat gets. But what DOES it want?
To Tell The Truth: There may be no honor among thieves, but can't we find it even in a few good men and women?
Should The Human Brain Retire?: We know that we cannot win forever. We know that machines will continue to improve. So why don't we let the human brain retire gracefully now, with honors?
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Published: Sep 16, 2005 01:40 PM
Sun - February 8, 2004
When Labor's Love Is Lost
Of course they do. Of course they will. But it's hard to see someone you care about in distress over unemployment, and it's become a too familiar sight for me. Besides my wife, I know six friends at other firms who lost jobs in the past year, often unpleasantly. One has been out of work nearly that long. When they laid that friend off after two years at her company, management asked employees draw straws from a cup to determine who would go. She chose poorly and was out that day. No long goodbyes, no thanks for her hard work, no severance. Her manager didn't even fire her in person. He asked his secretary to do it.
Another friend worked for her law firm for four years and had always received stellar performance reviews. Soon she would have been considered for partnership and a stake in the firm's profits—a lawyer's reward for years of late nights and weekends litigating insurance cases. Instead, she fell victim to the economy. The firm's billings slackened, its coffers depleted. When a few partners left with an important book of business, the firm decided to downsize and it included her highly paid position in the mix. These things happen. But this is how they let her go: They asked her in for her usual annual performance review and instead of giving her plaudits, they called her incompetent and unprofessional. They criticized her work ethic, which seems to have been unimpeachable. They told her she had to leave. Then they announced to clients and to the associates remaining on staff that the firm had let 20 people go for performance-related issues but remained on solid financial footing.
When she told me about this—distraught almost beyond coherence—I understood immediately what had happened, how the firm had tried to protect its client base by dissipating rumors of insolvency and by disparaging departing lawyers who might have taken business with them. Yet it was hard to reconcile those facts with Carole's years of sacrifice. "I put off having a baby for the firm," she said. "I thought some of the partners were my friends as well as my colleagues. I feel angry, but even more than that, I feel devalued."
Business being business, layoffs are sometimes necessary. But I worry that in this sagging economy, where layoffs sometimes seem to be as frequent as rainy days, that some companies have become hardened to the psychological consequences they bring. If we disrespect each other in times of hardship, like my friends' companies did, what long-term effect will this have on workforce morale even after the economy improves? Certainly, not a good one.
"It's nothing personal," one former boss told a friend the day he let him go. But the gesture offered small comfort. Downsizing may be unavoidable, carefully considered, and non-discriminatory, but it always feels personal, and ought to be handled with care, as it has been at my wife's company. If the thing must be done, let it be done with dignity. If it isn't personal, don't make it so. Sudden unemployment is disconcerting enough.
"Why aren't they calling?" my wife asked me again last night.
Don't worry, honey. They will.