How do you lay somebody off?

Don't tell them you're sorry, don't tell them they're just a number, don't tell them you wouldn't do it if you didn't have to.

I heard it all. It sounds hollow ... because you still have a job and they don't.

 

Thanks buddy. The feeling is mutual ... depending on the caliber of the bullet. ;D

 

sweet.

 

At my shop, you get out your Bullshit Cannon, fire away and call it "restructuring"

(rant finished)

 

"Bullshit Cannon" is a great phrase

 

Having had to do this to about a dozen people - all at once - in another field, for reasons that I knew were bullshit (a couple bad apples brought everyone else down a week shy of union protection), be straight up, right down the line with them. If you can and are willing to write a letter of reference or willing to be used as a reference, let them know that - better for the next employer to deal with you than HR. And if you can help guide them through HR, do so. At my place, they actually offerend to "let" people resign, as if they were doing them a favor, which of course would have screwed them out of unemployment. Fortunately, I let them all know ahead of time.

 

When I was laid off, my supervisor told me just after I clocked out for the week.

"I hate to tell you this, but you were laid off today. You need to leave your key and gather up all your stuff now."

 

how long did you work there?

 

I was laid off six months after I was hired, along with five other people (don't remember how long their tenures were).

 

The first -- and only -- layoff I've been a part of was handled pretty much like CM's. I was a 22 year-old ME and my publisher made me sit in on it. Oh, did I mention the lady we were laying off was a single mom and it was the last day of work before Christmas?

I felt so ashamed.

 

You had no reason to feel ashamed. But one can only hope your publisher felt that way.

 

Yeah. He was the same fucker who told me I had no job when I returned from Afghanistan. Classy guy.