Reference no: EM13743518

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Bad News Memo or email: Reassuring Staff After Layoffs (From Dr. Guffy's case studies)

On the TV show "The Apprentice," Donald Trump seemed to relish announcing "You're fired" to losing contestants. But most employers recoil from having to tell employees that they will be "downsized." To make a difficult job easier, managers sometimes use plain language, euphemisms, and jargon to avoid bluntly announcing that someone has been fired or laid off. In fact, cutbacks have generated new words like "rightsizing" and "re-engineering."

Regardless of the language, today's economic tailspin forces organizations to tell employees that they will be losing their jobs by emphasizing what is best for the company. At e-Bay, 1,500 employees lost their jobs in a program of "employee simplification." At Yahoo the CEO explained layoffs as a way for the company to "become more fit."

No matter how you look at it, people are worried about losing their jobs, and those who remain are worried about whether the company will stay in business.

Experts differ on how to reveal possible workforce reductions. Should managers disclose the news indirectly and quietly? Or should they use the direct approach and announce loudly that they are taking forceful action to strengthen the organization in a dour economy? Some say that executives should use bland language to minimize the public relations fallout from mass firings. Vague explanations and even corporate jargon may be appropriate to reduce the negative effect on remaining employees and on recruiting new employees when the economy rebounds. Opaque language and euphemisms may lessen the impact of layoffs.