[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2023\/03\/02\/layoff-survivor-guilt\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2023\/03\/02\/layoff-survivor-guilt\/","headline":"Layoff survivor guilt: Acknowledging and helping the walking wounded","name":"Layoff survivor guilt: Acknowledging and helping the walking wounded","description":"Layoff survivor guilt is very real for employees who remain after job reductions when the coworkers they care for are no longer there. ","datePublished":"2023-03-02","dateModified":"2023-03-23","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/paroma-sen\/#Person","name":"Paroma Sen","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/paroma-sen\/","identifier":335,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fe6b3b2d90921fef2923a35bc8d88870d618452c85002de654f6df7eb407449?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fe6b3b2d90921fef2923a35bc8d88870d618452c85002de654f6df7eb407449?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Layoff-survivor-guilt-FTR-1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Layoff-survivor-guilt-FTR-1.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2023\/03\/02\/layoff-survivor-guilt\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/employee-engagement\/","name":"Employee Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Employee_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q14937678"]},"Employee Experience & Engagement",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/purpose\/","name":"Purpose","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Purpose"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/purpose\/purpose-general\/","name":"Purpose","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Purpose"]},"Real Talk: Mental Health, Well-Being, and Laughter",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/purpose\/thought-leadership\/","name":"Thought Leadership","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thought_leader"]}],"wordCount":963,"keywords":["Employee Experience","Employee Mental Health","Health and Wellness","Thought Leadership"],"articleBody":"March 17, 2008. That awful date is forever burned in my memory and ended up changing the trajectory of my career forever \u2013 and what came after is when I learned about layoff survivor guilt.A young marketer at the time, with barely 3 years of work experience, I was facing a steep learning curve at a semiconductor company. Being a seasonal business heavily invested in capital expenses (three fabrication factories in the US alone), my company went through layoff cycles at least once or twice every year. What made the 2008 layoff different was the sheer volume:25% of the company\u2019s workforce was cut in one swift motion. And we were all left reeling.I wasn\u2019t personally impacted by that layoff, but it was still traumatic. I witnessed rows upon rows of my friends pack up and leave, in what felt like minutes. These were people that I had coffee with every day, bickering on radio commentators\u2019 grammatical mistakes, TPing colleagues\u2019 cubicles when they were traveling. I knew their wives\u2019 and children\u2019s names. I had so many memories, and suddenly these people that were such a big part of my life were gone. In the blink of an eye.15 years since that day, everything about it is still vivid in my mind. Thankfully, those impacted eventually found other roles and settled back into life, but it changed my career trajectory forever \u2013 after that day, the realization that I couldn\u2019t stay in a bottom-line driven company anymore led to gradually shifting my focus toward software companies with fewer capital expenditures burdening their balance sheets.Survivor\u2019s guilt is real. Especially in a world where layoffs are a consequence of business decisions and are executed by role rather than by performance.It’s very easy to start wondering: Why them; why not me? Was I just lucky? Will I be lucky enough the next time?What is survivor guilt in the workplace?Survivor guilt is defined as the sense of guilt associated with surviving a situation, incident, or event while others did not. In the workplace, survivor syndrome is a psychological response that can emerge after people survive downsizing or layoffs.In addition to the guilt, a survivor\u2019s disarray of emotions include relief that you still have a job, and the feeling of being overwhelmed from taking on more work.When you’re a leader, there’s the additional realization that outcomes still need to be delivered, and setting boundaries doesn\u2019t work because there\u2019s fewer avenues for delegation left anymore.Surviving employees can be coping with layoff survivor guilt for a long time, negatively impacting well-being and mental health among teams within the organization.      Break the cycle of professional burnout: Meet the Chief Wellbeing Officer                \u201cWe lock up our homes, we lock up our cars... but when it comes to boundaries for our personal well-being, we just give it away. You know: just come in, take it, and rob me.\u201d The chief wellbeing officer is a new, much-needed role to tackle the growing challenge of professional burnout.      Symptoms of survivor guilt: Recognizing what lies beneathThere are multiple ways that layoff survivor guilt can show up in the workplace:Lack of faith and trust in leadershipDecreased performance and productivityLow employee moraleDisengagement + lack of inputIncreased feelings of burnout or being overwhelmedLack of psychological safetyAnxiety and fatigueIncreased absenteeismParalysis in decision-makingSadness, depression, and fearAccording to Gallup,\u00a0disengaged employees cost the workplace $7.8 trillion in lost productivity in a single year, an equivalent of a whopping 11% of global GDP.In Leadership IQ’s study, Don’t Expect Layoff Survivors to Be Grateful, 74% of employees who kept their jobs during a corporate layoff say their productivity declined post-layoff.This content is hosted by a third party ( player.simplecast.com ).To view the content, either update your cookie preferences or view it in a new browser window.Cookie PreferencesNew Window“Look for the helpers”: How to begin healingTo help employees after layoffs, there are a few things that are critical to assisting:Regular check-ins with employees focusing on how they’re feelingClear, concise communications regarding new organizational structure and what that means for impacted teams\u00a0Allowing employees to be honest about how they’re feelingEmotional resilience is also key. It’s important to remember that ultimately the gratification for the work we do lies not in the salary we bring in, or the bosses or employees we strive to please every day. That gratification must lie in intrinsic purpose, one that’s larger than the company we currently work for \u2013 a purpose that cannot die even if the path to getting there must shift or undergo dramatic transformation.So, look for those silver linings that may not be immediately apparent. For me, it took years to realize the shift that happened in my mind on March 17, 2008. It led me to become an industry expert, by working through multiple roles in different industries as I gradually moved from hardware to software. These are skills that I now use every day and help me operate at a level of competence that I could never have foreseen back in 2008.In light of our current macroeconomic conditions and the rapidly changing world we live in, cutbacks and layoffs are here to stay. Which means that survivor\u2019s guilt will continue to be a recurring theme in our lives for years to come. Remember, layoff survivor guilt is very real for employees who remain after job reductions when the coworkers they care for are no longer there.We must learn to lean on each other and learn from each other\u2019s experiences to make it through to the other side.  Be the smartest adult in the Zoom.Listen to our podcast\u00a0HERE.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2023","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2023\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"03","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2023\/\/03\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"02","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2023\/\/03\/\/02\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Layoff survivor guilt: Acknowledging and helping the walking wounded","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2023\/03\/02\/layoff-survivor-guilt\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]