Beating the Layoffs: II

If layoffs are likely soon where you work, you probably haven't done much about finding an alternative position. Most people don't act proactively in such situations. If you've known for some time that you should make a move to exit voluntarily, but you haven't done it, this post might help. It's Part Two of a review of some of the advantages and disadvantages of exiting voluntarily before the layoffs. Take a look at Part I.

How exiting voluntarily can be advantageous

There are two ways to exit voluntarily — with a job offer elsewhere and without. If you have an offer, you have a difficult decision to make. The difficulty arises when you've made an assessment that layoffs are looming for your current employer, because the threat might bias you in favor of accepting the offer, even when that offer might not be suitable for you. To avoid the layoff, you might value the offer more highly than it is actually due. Take your time. Consider it carefully.

In the second case, you don't have an offer in hand. Exiting your current position without an offer can expose you to many of the same risks a layoff does. But because you choose the time, you can mitigate many of those risks. And that's the subject of this post: how exiting voluntarily can provide advantages, even though you don't have a job offer in hand.

Collegial relationships

If you exit voluntarily, you can depart on good terms with your current colleagues. Indeed, if layoff rumors are already circulating, the more savvy among your current colleagues might tend to seek you out before you actually leave, hoping to ensure that you remain in their professional networks. Some of these folks hope for more — that if the worst befalls them you might provide a lifeline from whatever safe haven you will have found for yourself. By making the rounds in the weeks before you actually leave you can gauge who among them would provide valuable references.

By contrast, Exiting your current position without an offer
of a position can expose you to many of the
same risks a layoff does. But because you
can choose the date of your departure,
you can mitigate many of those risks.when you exit involuntarily through a massive layoff, the time between the announcement and the last day (or days) of work for the people laid off can be somber. People laid off can be angry, and some of that anger is directed at the people not laid off. Passive (or active) sabotage can erupt. The atmosphere can be toxic. Trust is eroded. It's not an environment that strongly encourages good-bye hugs or promises about references.

Future interviews and negotiations

If you exit voluntarily, you're better able to present yourself to others as a serious career professional. You can explain your exit as a proactive career move. Your statements about your past roles and about your capabilities gain credibility, because you appear to be more confident about what you're saying.

When you exit involuntarily (that is, when you're laid off or fired) such assertions are less credible. Anything you do say about your past role and about your capabilities is likely to be discounted. You can try, "The layoff wasn't about me — our entire business unit was shut down," or some such. But that leaves unanswered the question, "If you're so capable, why didn't they find another way to keep you?"

Health effects

Layoffs affect the health of everyone in the organization — including the people who are laid off, the people who aren't laid off, and the people executing the layoffs. The effects on "survivors" are so common that the Management literature has adapted the concept of survivor syndrome developed in the field of trauma. [Appelbaum, et al. 1997]

If you wait for the layoffs, you could be harmed directly by being laid off yourself, or you could be harmed indirectly by suffering survivor's syndrome, and by being exposed to others suffering from the trauma of the layoff. If you exit voluntarily, you avoid being exposed to this atmosphere of pain and wounding.

Severance package

The severance package that accompanies a layoff notice might be less valuable than it seems on its face. First, because the value of the package is taxable, the relevant value for purposes of comparing alternatives to being laid off is the after-tax value. Determining that value accurately could require the services of an accountant, which, of course, must be deducted from the face value of the package.

Second, severance packages are often encumbered. Usually you must agree to the terms contained in a document before you can receive the package. You might want to negotiate some changes to that document. In any case, you'll probably require an attorney's services, which, of course, must be deducted from the face value of the package.

Third, the terms of the agreement might restrict your options as you consider alternative employment. If the position you ultimately secure is within an organization that your current employer considers to have been barred by the severance agreement, you might find that legal representation is necessary to protect your severance package. Again, the cost of representation must be deducted from the face value of the package.

Finally, if the terms of the package constrain the kinds of positions you can accept, fair comparison requires that you consider how those constraints might suppress your future earnings.

If you exit voluntarily, none of these factors are relevant, because the severance package is likely very limited, if it exists at all.

Last words

Depending upon the jurisdiction in which you live, local or national government might offer some compensation, possibly including health care for a period of time to persons laid off. Usually, the value of these items is not significant compared to the compensation of a highly paid professional, but since "usually," "period of time," and "significant" are mushy terms, calculating the value of these elements might be necessary for a fair comparison of voluntary exit to being laid off.   First issue in this series   Top    Next Issue

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