GigglyUnicorn
GigglyUnicorn

dirty tricks played by orgs to Lay Off employees

It's getting dirtier by the day and sure some orgs are still up to their dirty tricks.

The models:

  • Appraise and then Lay Off: Why bother putting bandaid on a stab wound? Anyways the folks are going to fight how to answer the ..why were you laid off war, and now you are adding another twist.. why were you appraised and then laid off?
  • Low appraisals to force quit: Undervalue them so they leave on their own. It’s a leeches way to cut costs. Kill morale 100%. Severance penny spent $0.
  • Trap them in PIP: Dress it up however you want - very very few escape this death sentence.
  • Silent treatment: No assignments, No meetings. Watch them spiral into anxiety and leave to save their sanity.
  • Workload overload: Drown them in work until they break. No need for layoffs list until they make it to your collapse list first.
  • Strategic reorg: Re-organize them out of existence. Offer a demotion or a proxy role in a random team that you know they dont want as an alternative.
  • Sudden policy changes: oh! I have seen so many I can't keep up with this one. New policies that make their life hell. People leave to escape your pettiness.
  • Mandatory relocation: Demand they move to an undesirable location. Then you treat remote employees like outsiders. Exclude them from key projects, conversations until they feel like foster care kids, second-class citizens. You know the outcome from there on.
  • Use the "Culture Fit" excuse: Call out how they’re not a culture fit. Vague, unchallengeable, and forces them out without severance.

And don't sell me "the org has got to do what it has got to do to survive" line. I don't buy that If you have seen this being done, I understand your silence, but I don't value it. If this has been done to you or someone close to you, I am sorry. Orgs and the people failed you. We could be 1000x better than what we are operating as.

10mo ago
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SparklyDumpling
SparklyDumpling

Respect for creating this post

GigglyUnicorn
GigglyUnicorn

Had to call it out .. was tired

JumpyBanana
JumpyBanana

@FreshRaita Isn't this a LinkedIn copy paste lol

CosmicDumpling
CosmicDumpling

I hope that people realise its the org management that takes these steps and not HRs. HRs are only facilitators of what the management wants. They get the blame from all sides.

CosmicLlama
CosmicLlama

Nobody is blaming the HR. Every one knows HR only responsible for the rangoli designs. Any HR reading this shouldn't get too much into themselves.

ZippyTaco
ZippyTaco
Amazon10mo

That is such a rude comment 'only responsible for the rangoli designs'. Never comment if you are not in their shoes.

PeppyDonut
PeppyDonut

Now one low-life grapevine user will come and say “Don't like something? Go change it or do something about it. Talking doesn't accomplish shit, talk is cheap. Easy to bash on founders when you yourself don't have enough guts to even try making a pitch deck or pitching to an investor.”

The shot is on you @Rorschach

ZippyMochi
ZippyMochi

I was tired of all the above, that's why I started my own company :)

Unions for startup employees has already been discussed extensively on gv. Good idea imo.

BouncyMarshmallow
BouncyMarshmallow
Student10mo

Oof

GigglyWalrus
GigglyWalrus

I've had exactly that mandatory relocation thing happen to me just recently as a remote worker. Been put on notice due to being unable to relocate. HR once had the gall to tell me, in their classic, subtly manipulative way, that if I don't come to office, people in office would "seize opportunities." My only thought was, isn't it your damn job to ensure everyone gets a fair shot at any opportunity?

I also hate that I had to make up excuses for staying remote when they opened the office, instead of them simply understanding that I'm better suited to working from home, which I had for 2 years. I used to handle all my responsibilities without letting any personal circumstances ever get in the way of work. As a matter of fact, the opposite was the norm, work used to heavily encroach on my personal time.

SwirlyPickle
SwirlyPickle

Is it weird to have experienced the majority of them the last 16 years 🤔😭

FloatingRaccoon
FloatingRaccoon

This feels personal. I recently got a promotion which means the managers were happy with my performance. However, as and when I asked for an internal transfer - which they highly promoted as per their policies - the work environment drastically changed from the very next day. Suddenly, my feedbacks went from gold standard to very very poor, suddenly I was working for 20-22 hours a day, and even then I would get scolded. Suddenly many things happened which just forced me to resign.

DizzyLlama
DizzyLlama
Atlys10mo

I have seen points 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 being done to people. I personally experienced one of them.

Although reasons I have seen for layoff can be different -

  1. Manager wants a yes man, I ain't one
  2. Actually bad performance, but no one gives a fuck to try and uplift the person and see how they can help out (it is indeed important to understand what people are going through and help them out!)
  3. Disagreements with Manager, ego of Manager
  4. Company need to save funds
  5. There's a specific budget for a team and Manager has to make some people more happy
DerpyPickle
DerpyPickle

In my office they’ve started bringing sudden policy .

PrancingNugget
PrancingNugget

all promotions are frozen after a certain level this year. so you end up seeing a junior promoted upto your level.

WobblyNugget
WobblyNugget

I hate when the an org says that I'm part of their family. In the end I'm one of the 🤡 in the family.

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