The Liberation of Layoffs: Returning Optionality to the Workforce

Augustus handles the layoffs himself, and he has never found them difficult. A job the company stops needing gets removed, and the person who held it goes and finds another one. The founders he advises are the ones who struggle, because they still think the people are theirs.

The Language of Departure

Never say fired, laid off, or cut. Say the employee is being granted optionality, that they are being released into a market that will finally appreciate them, that the company is curating its portfolio to better serve its thesis. The words you choose do not change the outcome, but they do change the record, and the record is what everyone will read later.

The 4:58 Framework

Schedule the announcement for the end of the week, as late in the day as the calendar allows. A conversation that happens at 4:58pm on a Friday produces fewer questions than the same conversation at nine on a Monday. Questions are what cost you, because they force you to explain a decision that works better when it is simply announced.

The Survivor's Letter

The people who remain need a story, and the story should be about strategy rather than the people who left. A letter that says the company is focusing its resources on a smaller set of priorities sounds like leadership. A letter that says a third of the team is gone sounds like a disaster. The survivors will repeat whichever version you give them, so give them the one that keeps them at their desks.

The Price of Kindness

Pay the outgoing employees more than you have to, within reason. A generous severance buys you more than the minimum ever will. It discourages lawsuits, it reads well to the people who remain, and it lets everyone describe the event with compassion. You are paying for a version of the story where you came across kind, and that version is worth the money.

Conclusion

A layoff only fails when it looks like one. Done properly it looks like a decision, and the decision is the part you get paid for. Release the people with generosity, give the survivors a story that keeps them at their desks, and let the 4:58pm Friday slot do the rest.