Ask HN: What do you want to see in a mass-layoff notice? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What do you want to see in a mass-layoff notice?

8 pointssequoia4 comments

Every time there's a mass layoff notice linked here people are really angry at one or more phrasings contained in the announcement. Most recently[0], people objected to the CEO expressing regret over the layoffs and referring to employees per company lingo (googlers, metamates, in this case "birds").

I've also seen complaints about timing of layoffs (i.e. near holidays even if they're 8 weeks away), timing of public notifications (public statements too soon, public statements too late), the method of private notification (big mass email is too abrupt, telling people one by one leaves people in suspense, cutting off systems access is too abrupt despite being a reasonable security practice in most cases).

So what does everyone want to see in a mass-layoff notice? I invite everyone (especially critics) to try their hand in the comments: write a public notice about laying off 30% of your staff that you think will be received well and not be considered noxious by readers. What does your ideal mass layoff notice look like? Show us!

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33792140

I would give only factual statements with no emotion. I would provide steps we took to avoid the layoffs and the teams we formed, including fellow employees, managers, leaders and financial analysts to think-tank our way out of the layoffs.

As CEO I would personally offer a reference to affected employees on LinkedIn and in email to make it clear to their prospective employers that they were excellent employees and that the termination of their employment was no fault of their own. I would require my C-Level direct reports to offer the same thing at the employees request. Prior to layoffs I would require the employees managers to write up good things about them and submit them to me. If they can not give me good things to say about the employee I would question their hiring practices and review the management level employment. Should I discover that managers were doing Hire-To-Fire practices, they would take the place of the FTE's that were to be let go.

I would then document the steps we are taking to reduce or mitigate the risk of future layoffs as to not give the perception that this would be an expected annual event.

Nothing really except a one liner "We are laying off x% of our workforce" so that people are aware. No one cares about the reasons and anything else that the CEO has to say. I don't run a big enough company to announce layoffs publicly but if I ever did, I would do the 1 liner. Simple and informative.

I can almost guarantee you that people would read that as flippant and tonedeaf "s/he didn't even bother writing anything! Laying off 30% of his/her workforce isn't even worth a tweet to him/her!"

But I with your sentiment: there's no appealing way to deliver this news, so the less you say the better.

"Just kidding ..."

I have been laid off twice. I have witnessed at least 20 layoffs.

My first layoff they told us we were laid off in a month, and at that time they would set up a team to help with resumes and interview practice. We would have access to office equipment, but not the regular office equipment, i.e. current email would be gone in a month. We would have access to the office and help for like 6 months.

What I wish was 2 months notice, and to start with the resume help immediately. Myself I wasted the month trying to leave everything proper for those left behind. Other, smarter, got their resumes out immediately while they were still considered employed.

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