On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Jason, Amy and Brandi discuss Quiet Hiring, Turnover Contagion and Layoff Survivor Guilt. These byproducts of layoffs can lead to a culture of fear, and when people are working out of fear, they start to avoid taking risks. They learn less, they grow less, they innovate less, and they become less than they could be. The way you treat people when times are tough determines whether you’ll get their best effort, a perfunctory effort, or an effort to sabotage you. When you treat people like cogs in a machine, you’ll get no more than you demand, and you create an incentive to break the machine.

Listen to the episode:

Radical Candor Podcast Episode At a Glance

On our last episode, we talked about the emotional and financial effects of layoffs on folks who’ve lost their jobs. Now we’re going to talk about what happens to the people who are left behind.

We’re going to explore a few different terms you may have heard recently: Quiet Hiring, Turnover Contagion, and Layoff Survivor Guilt. 

Quiet Hiring, which means — in the context we’ll be discussing it — that those who’ve retained their jobs will be doing a lot more work because the work still needs to get done and the people who were doing it are no longer there.

In this current landscape, some companies are framing Quiet Hiring as a path to upskilling and career advancement, but many employees experience it as being tricked into doing undesirable work for little or no rewards.

Turnover Contagion — a phenomenon that occurs when an increased number of employees resign after a round of layoffs.

According to a report from Visier, a human-resources analytics company, “There is a ‘contagion’ effect inside teams when people are asked to leave involuntarily: some of their peers are more likely to resign in response.”

Layoff Survivor Guilt — feeling guilty to still be working for an organization that just conducted a mass layoff. In addition, those left behind may also be fearful that they’ll be next. This means managers must prioritize rebuilding trust with their employees after a layoff.

On Twitter Catherine Morgan, author of This Isn’t Working! Evolving the Way We Work to Decrease Stress, Anxiety, and Depression, said:

I was talking with a client about the ‘survivor guilt’ she felt, having made it through a big round of layoffs. It is an unnerving and heartbreaking experience — even if you still have your job. You feel untethered and you can smell the fear.”

Radical Candor Podcast Checklist

1.  If you suddenly find yourself experiencing Quiet Hiring, talk to your manager about how you can leverage your new responsibilities toward your professional development goals. It’s also appropriate to ask how you’ll be compensated for doing additional work.
2. When you do have information that affects your team, commit to delivering it as soon as possible in a way that’s kind and clear. Allow the people who are left behind to ask questions and provide answers if you have them. If you don’t know the answer, it’s OK to admit that you don’t know, but be clear that you will deliver relevant news as soon as you have it.
   
3. If you’re a manager, have intentional Career Conversations with each person on your team. Let them know that you’re doing this in good faith and not to use it against them. Based on these conversations try to redistribute the work.

Radical Candor Podcast Resources

• You’ve Heard of Quiet Quitting. Meet Its New Rival: Quiet Hiring.
• Keeping Remaining Employees Engaged After a Layoff
• Layoffs might cause workers who are left behind to quit
• How To Rebuild Team Relationships After Layoffs
• CEOs Aren’t Dealing With the Toxic Fallout of Layoffs – The Washington Post
• 3 Career Conversations To Retain Your Team | Radical Candor
• Turnover Contagion is Real | VISIER INSIGHTS REPORT
• Andrea Derler, Ph.D. on LinkedIn: #research #people #turnovercontagion
• Workers who remain after job cuts feel “layoff survivor guilt”
• The toll of layoff anxiety – BBC Worklife
• What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs
• ‘Quiet hiring’ is the opposite of quiet quitting, and workers are furious about it
• Why It’s Important for Leaders to Double Down On Radical Candor During Times of Uncertainty
• Work From the Office, Get Laid Off at Home – The New York Times
• A Boss’s Guide to Leading Through Uncertain Times – WSJ

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