Why Firing Someone Needs to Hurt
And how you can avoid layoffs as an emergency maneuver
Many big companies rang in the new year with layoffs — including Intel, Ancestry, Lyft, Quora, and Mozilla. Of course, no one enjoys laying people off — reducing headcount simply remains a classic business move when it comes to reducing losses. One fewer employee means one fewer salary and benefits package.
Yet, the consequences of layoffs often run deep and aren’t easily reversible. When a company fires someone, it creates the potential for the employee to join competitors in the industry. Internally, it creates shockwaves of concern across the organization, affecting employees’ outlook of the company. Externally, it can mean a reputation hit, a stock price plummet, and hordes of negative press. For a company like WeWork that lays off 2,400 employees in one go, it’s also probably a sign that most of these employees shouldn’t have been hired in the first place.
Here’s why firing employees needs to feel painful: It should represent a real loss of talented individuals.
Firing employees should be painful
Firing employees shouldn’t just be trimming the fat for bloated companies; it should represent a real…
