Leading Through Layoffs: Working through Survivor’s Syndrome

As organizations face optimizations and reorganizations frequently employees are displaced or laid off. These actions while necessary for the organization can leave the remaining employees with negative feelings often referred to as survivor’s syndrome. The resulting negativity can drastically impact the performance of the organization. How can managers and organizations ease the stresses on these survivors?

To understand how to help employees cope with layoffs it is important to understand the basis of the grief. An unwritten agreement exists between the employer and employee call the psychological contract (Herriot, Manning, & Kidd, 1997). This contract may support values such as trust, security, loyalty and stability (Sahdev, 2004). Employees dealing with survivor’s syndrome show a perceived breach in this psychological contract. Studies suggest that topics of commitment and motivation are common with survivors (Sahdev, 2004).

Communication is the core of dealing with this syndrome. ‘Providing clear explanations of why downsizing is necessary, treating all employees with dignity and using procedures that are fair, are all imperative for building and maintaining any chance of survivor trust’. (Niehoff, Moorman, Blakely, & Fuller, 2001). Putzler suggests four actions to move past survivor syndrome; hold open meetings to discuss issues, invite family members to events, provide non-work related discussions and events, and organize ways to lighten up the work environment (Putzler, 2002). The goal here is to rebuild that psychological contract by demonstrating the organization’s honest motivation for the layoffs and continued commitment to the survivors as a person rather than name on a resource allocation sheet. Provide eye-to-eye communications and show these employees you care (Supervision, 1990).

Defining a strategy for survivor’s happiness and attention needed to put it into action is critical for post-layoff viability (Travaglione & Cross, 2006). Managers and leadership need to be aware of the impacts layoffs have on the organization and plan for ways to work through the resulting negative emotions. Too often we view business as a cold calculating machine where things are quantifiable. These days more than ever we need to remember and support the human aspects that truly drive the successes in our businesses.

Works Cited

Herriot, P., Manning, W. E., & Kidd, J. M. (1997). The content of the psychological contract. British Journal of Management , 8 (2), 151 – 162.

Niehoff, B., Moorman, R., Blakely, G., & Fuller, J. (2001). The influence of empowerment and job enrichment on employee loyalty in a downsizing environment. Group and Organization Management , 93–113.

Putzler, J. (2002). Moving Past Survivor Syndrome. Executive Excellence , 19 (1), p20.

Sahdev, K. (2004). Revisiting the survivor syndrome: The role of leadership in implementing downsizing. European Journal of Work & Organizational Psychology , 13 (2), p165-196.

Supervision. (1990). What about employees who aren’t laid off? Supervision Magazine , 51 (7), p21.

Travaglione, A., & Cross, B. (2006). Diminishing the social network in organizations: does there need to be such a phenomenon as ‘survivor syndrome’ after downsizing? Strategic Change , 15 (1), p1-13.