How To Handle A Holiday Layoff (And How Companies Like Better.com Can Do Better)

The recent buzz around the Better.com layoff of 900-plus employees on Zoom has rocked the workforce (and media outlets). If you’ve ever experienced an unexpected company downsizing and walked into the room to feel as though the rug was pulled out from under you, watching the replay of the jarring three-minute Zoom call from Better.com’s CEO, Vishal Garg, might bring back nightmares of that experience. It’s clear that he’s focused on reading from a script while lamenting about his own feelings of not crying, thus, making the call feel completely transactional, self-absorbed, and downright callous. If you listen closely, he mentions at the end of the call that each employee will get four weeks of severance and three months of benefits, disregarding individual tenure at the company.

While this situation might be ripe for negotiating severance (and hiring an employment lawyer to do so), it’s also one that could have been handled better and more professionally. Garg could have relinquished his script and arranged his HR teams and the respective business unit managers to speak to the downsized employees in a smaller-scale setting while reassuring the employees that outplacement (career transition) services would also be provided to help them with the next phase of their career. He could have also mentioned that the downsized employees would have access to counseling, especially given how much employee mental health has been affected during the past two years of the pandemic. What’s missing from Garg’s script is an insertion of empathy and compassion for the departing employees at the height of the holiday season.

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An experienced executive leader will tell you that building a high-performing team or solid workforce requires building those employees up, training them effectively, and creating growth opportunities for them to thrive. It may also include reskilling and upskilling your team members. If 15% of your workforce isn’t performing, the issue might just be ineffective leadership or legacy systems, which in turn lower productivity, reduce efficiencies, and create wasteful spending.

In this instance, Better.com had a $750 million cash infusion from investors days before the Zoom call and Garg’s LinkedIn headline noted that the company was hiring. However, Garg has now put himself at the center of chaos, with the world to see how he treats his employees, causing future employees to rethink working for a company where a CEO can callously fire over 900 employees in a robotic fashion, as well as customers rethinking whether they want to do business with a company that’s run this way. If anything, it should be a wake-up call for all employed professionals to do your due diligence and invest your time in learning about the company’s mission, values, and culture before working there.

The notion of being blindsided just weeks before the holidays, with travel plans booked and shopping lists checked off, is a terrible and unfortunate situation for any professional to endure. Company layoffs during the holiday season are more common than we realize, especially since company founders are pushing to reach year-end numbers, reflecting on annual budget needs, as well as looking at ways to reduce costs.

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Losing your job at the end of the year may seem like the worst possible time — no one really wants to go to a holiday gathering and have the probing career questions asked. However, getting laid off during the holidays can be the greatest blessing in disguise for your long-term career. The job market is ripe with opportunities right now — the holidays are the perfect time to update your resume and LinkedIn profile, re-engage your LinkedIn network by letting them know you’re looking for work, and conduct deep insights into potential companies and their executives when you interview. Spend time crafting your elevator pitch and refining that 30-second introduction. You will bounce back, and the layoff will make for a great story of how it led to an even better career opportunity (pun intended).

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Wendi Weiner is an attorney, career expert, and founder of The Writing Guru, an award-winning executive resume writing services company. Wendi creates powerful career and personal brands for attorneys, executives, and C-suite/Board leaders for their job search and digital footprint. She also writes for major publications about alternative careers for lawyers, personal branding, LinkedIn storytelling, career strategy, and the job search process. You can reach her by email at [email protected], connect with her on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @thewritingguru.  

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In-House Counsel, Layoffs, Unemployment, Wendi Weiner