How do you lay somebody off?

Tom Petty · Nov 2, 2008

BB Bobcat said:

I just went through this a month ago. My SE called me into the office, and a moment later the ME came in and closed the door behind him. I immediately said: "Are you firing me?" Sort of half-kidding. The ME said "No, but you're not going to like it." Then he came out pretty quickly and told me that my position was being eliminated. He didn't dance around the issue. He did say that I had done a great job and it was no way a reflection on my work, but simply the economy. I appreciated that. I think I also helped them by not making a big stink about it, because I had pretty much expected that I'd be having this talk eventually.

He discussed the severance and insurance and all that stuff. Then the ME left and me and the SE chatted, and he told me how crappy it was and how he was sorry that it had to come to this. He said he'd be happy to help in whatever way he could for me to get another job.

Overall, I think they handled it about as well as I could have hoped, from the way they actually broke the news to the package they gave me.

On another topic from this thread, my wife was also laid off while on maternity leave. It turned out to be a blessing for us, because she didn't make enough money at her old job to really justify having her be a working mom anyway, so we ended up collecting unemployment for her for longer than she would have been paid on maternity leave.

That was nine years ago and she still doesn't have a job, but now that I've lost mine I'm going to tell her to get her lazy butt out there and do something
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good luck, bobcat.

maberger · Nov 2, 2008

Moderator1 said:

"You need to stop in at HR."

Let them do the dirty work.
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i'm sorry, but this is terrible and just wrong.

if you're going to be the boss you must accept all aspects of the responsibility, and unfortunately laying someone off is going to be part of it.

be honest and direct, and if you offer help follow through.

and semantics-wise, some in this thread have substituted 'fired' for 'laid off' -- they're two different things.

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How do you lay somebody off?

Tom Petty Guest

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How do you lay somebody off?

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