Enjoy Technical Writing ? A Layoff Happens for Good: Online Survey ...

This is the second post in the three-part series on *Handling Layoffs*:

• Part one: Handling a Layoff
• Part two (this post): A Layoff Happens for Good, Online Survey Results and Analysis
• Part three (next post): Handling a Layoff, An Employer or Supervisor Perspective

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A Layoff Happens for Good: Online Survey Analysis

While writing part one of this series, I created an online survey and asked technical documentation specialists for their comments on handling a layoff. I distributed the survey to STC India mailing lists, social media such as facebook, twitter and LinkedIn, and published it on other media as well.

The survey results show that *a layoff is bad* is really a myth.

More than fifty percent respondents have felt positively after the layoff and they feel that it had happened for the good. This is interesting and it further boosts my belief that a layoff is not bad, as I discussed in part one of this series.

For this survey, an account of key questions and audience response is as below.

Question: As a first reaction after layoff, you started:

More than 70% of professionals started applying for other open positions and around 25% professionals were also open for freelance assignments. A couple of custom comments were:

• Reviewed my career path whether to continue or to switch
• Let me take a much needed break

Question: When you got the next job or contract (after few days or weeks), you reflected back at the layoff as:

As evident from this response graph, more than half of the respondants were happy in their immediate next assignment after layoff. This is interesting.

Question: If it happened more than three years back, do you think today that it:

Again as seen in the users? response above, majority of the professionals were happy with layoff in the long run as well. Even after more than three years of layoff, more users feel *good that it happened*. So there are no qualms of why the pink slip, except the momentarily disappointment when the news breaks out first.

Question: Was the layoff communicated professionally and positively?

This is the issue that has bothered most of the professionals. Only 29% respondents say YES to it and a whopping 57% say that it was not communicated professionally. It shows that there is something that organizations (the manager or the superviso if not the organization policies) are not doing right, when a layoff is communicated, and how it is handled in the team. I will discuss it in part three of the series.

Question: Did the layoff affect your family and personal life, though temporarily?

More than 50% professionals say that the layoff had a marginal impact on their family life and another 22% say that it did not impact at all. This is another sign that adds to my *layoff is not bad* belief.

Question: If your colleague gets a layoff, do you think that the productivity of organization or department decreased immediately after that:

More than 50% professionals realised that the productivity of organization or department witnessed a negative impact after a layoff of their colleague. This is again NOT related to how the laid off professional responds to it or handles the layoff.

Since only 12% respondants say NO this, it again points to something that the organization is not doing right during or after the layoff. Even if this response is based on individual judgment of a user, and it may be based on emotions, we cannot altogether ignore the scope of what organizations can do to change this opinion.

Question: In your next job after layoff, did the fear of anxiety of another layoff impact your thought process and approach to your work?

At first look, this response graph seemed to be in contradiction to the response in earlier questions. Although a high majority of respondants had said that *layoff happened for good*,?it did not mean that they could easily ignore or forget that the layoff happened.

Conclusion

As I had mentioned in part one of this series that a layoff is not bad to happen, the respondants in this survey further stamped my viewpoint. Most of the professionals moved forward positively and felt good about the layoff, immediately and in the long run also. However, the issues had been at the organization end. Two such issues that are identified in this survey are:

• A high majority of?professionals feel that the layoff was not professionally communicated in the organization.
• More than 50% professionals realised that the productivity of organization or department witnessed a negative impact after the layoff of their colleague.

I plan to discuss it in part three in this series: Handling Layoff, an Employer or Supervisor Perspective.

Source: http://enjoytechnicalwriting.com/2012/07/24/a-layoff-happens-for-good-online-survey-results/

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