How Employees Can Overcome Layoff Survivor Syndrome
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Those who survive a round of layoffs may experience “;layoff survivor syndrome” a version of survivor guilt. Here’s home to overcome it.
00:00 Intro
00:34 What is layoff survivor syndrome?
01:45 How managers can recognize the symptoms
03:35 What can an employee do?
05:44 How can you move forward?
07:46 Outro
The Wise Man and The Complainers
I’m going to be talking about how employees can overcome. laid off survivor syndrome. I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. People hire me for no BS coaching and career advice globally. Think of it as involved with you and your career as a totality–being effective in the workplace, job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, dealing with career transitions or workplace issues.
And we’re going to be talking about layoff survivor syndrome. So to define it, it’s a psychological and emotional effect on employees who’ve survived a company layoff. These people may feel a range of emotions, including guilt, anxiety, and survivor guilt, due to the loss of their colleague’s jobs, and the increased workload they may now have to take on. Basically, what it can do is lead to decreased job satisfaction, and motivation, a decreased trust in their employer and their job security. Understandably, they may feel overworked because they are stressed and burned out, due to the added pressure of taking over the responsibilities of their former colleagues. And thus, what we want to help you do is get support and guidance on how to cope with some of these feelings, encourage some self care practices, and foster positive work-life balance, because they’re just going to throw more work at you. And we don’t want you to break.
So first of all, let’s just recognize as a manager, what the symptoms are. So let’s just include recognizing that there’s decreased morale and motivation. They may feel demotivated, have low morale, because they’re missing friends and colleagues, they’ve got more work and they’re wondering, ‘Am I next? Am I going to be hit with the next round of layoffs? And what’s my future like in an organization that feels like a sinking ship?’
They’ve got more stress, because of the increased workloads, and they’re worried. They’ve got fear and anxiety, because now they’re starting to think about their finances, and wondering if I am going to be next, how am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to pay my mortgage? What do I do for insurance since it comes out of my employer? I’ve got kids in school, if you have kids, and thus, their productivity may be adversely affected. You know, there’s increased absenteeism and turnover, because, frankly, there’s just too much stress on them. And they wonder ‘why should I even stay?’ They don’t trust anymore. So the survivors of layoffs can feel a lack of trust and communication with their leaders and colleagues because many of you told them things that wound up not being true. You gave them the best information that you had, but you were lied to, and you passed on the lies to them. And now they’re living with the consequences of the lies you were told that got passed on to them.
So what can people do, just to get through this? So this is not about the managers. This is about people who are feeling it as individual contributors, as managers and having to cope with it. Get support. Get support from other colleagues who’ve survived the layoffs, because it can feel helpful to talk with people. You know, I’m someone with a master’s in social work. I’ve talked to people for many years who’ve survived layoffs and it’s hard. Yeah, most of them wonder ‘ is my job being sent overseas,’ or ‘we’ve had layoffs and people have been fired and they’re finding it hard to find work.’ So make sure that people have an opportunity to talk to someone.
Reach out to friends and family outside of work to process your emotions and experience. Speak with a therapist or counselor or coach, for that matter, to work through any anxiety or stress related to the layoffs. Focus on the positives of your current situation. ‘Well, now I’m going to be doing this work. And although it’s a lot more work for me, this is new and I have something here I can learn so that you’re focusing on the growth and development opportunities in the role, staying engaged as best you can. Focus on delivering. Focus on doing world-class work to the best of your ability, and at the same time, maintain a healthy work-life balance to prevent burnout. Set goals for yourself. And you may have set them before but see how the new situation supports those goals, even though it may be a lot more work. And again, recognize it’s okay to feel overwhelmed and anxious in the aftermath of the layoffs. But we have to look at how you balance the new responsibilities and taking care of yourself.
So how do you move forward from this? Stay positive. Staying positive and maintaining a good attitude toward work will help you cope with the situation better. So focus on the positives about the work situation, not the stress. The stress will overwhelm you. It’ll eat you up from the inside. And that’s not going to help you at home with the kids, with your dog or cat, whomever. But if you can stay positive and focus on having a good attitude, it will serve you better.
Making the Most of Professional Development Opportunities
I know you won’t have to worry about this but the idea is to keep yourself busy with work and other activities to distract yourself from the current situation. Taking up a new project or learning a new skill in the course of doing your work or in maintaining your curiosity and career development will help you.
Network. Connect with your colleagues and other professionals in your industry to help you get new perspectives and maybe it will lead to new opportunities. Focus also on your future. Reexamine what your plan is for your career, and what you need to do to fulfill it. Support your wife, husband, partner, the kids, the dog, the cat– there’s a lot of people in your life who can provide you with emotional support during this time. So use that and take advantage of any available counseling or support services provided by your organization.
Lastly, stay focused. Staying focused on your work and staying committed to your goals. Keep up your performance metrics, communicate effectively with managers, and remain open to feedback. This will help you stand out and present this world-class, which is what you always want to be doing.
Anyway, hope you found this helpful. I’m Jeff Altman. Visit my website, TheBigGameHunter.us There’s a ton in the blog that will help you. Plus you can schedule time for what I call Trusted Advisor Services where you can ask me questions or for coaching with a job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, the whole host of things for you and your career over its lifecycle, including how to work with this stress that you’re feeling, this layoff survivor syndrome that you’re experiencing.
At the site you can also find out about my video courses, books and guides. Again, there’s a lot there to help you. Lastly, connect with me on Linkedin at linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter. My network tends to be a lot larger than most of yours and that will help you be able to reach out to that many more people without spending money on an InMail
Have a terrific day and most importantly, be great!
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. He is hired to provide No BS Career Advice globally. That can involve job search, hiring staff, management, leadership, career transition and advice about resolving workplace issues. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2500 episodes.
Website: www.TheBigGameHunter.us (schedule a paid coaching session, a free discovery call or ask questions using my Trusted Adviser Services)
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