Category: HR

Headcount reductions, a coward’s way out

The board has decided – we have to let people go. The axe swingeth. Who does it hit? Often the blade chops through large teams. The rationale being something like “there’s 50 of them – they can cope as a team of 40”. In some ways this looks more achievable, and perhaps desirable than “this team of four couldn’t possibly function if it got any smaller”.

Let’s say the team of 50 are front line customer service folk earning £25,000 each, and the team of four are management folk earning £100,000 each. Now I don’t know about you but in my experience bigger organisations can often cope with the loss of one of the management team much better than the loss of several front line staff. Trouble is – this is a headcount reduction you see, so in this case four is better than one. You don’t suppose these things are designed like this to protect the more senior folk do you?

I recall a division of a big company going through a round of voluntary redundancies. It was announced and presented along with an organisation chart mainly consisting of blank spaces. The blank spaces numbered fewer than the current number of people. Reapply for your job á la musical chairs. What struck me was that the first page of the chart was already complete. The Managing Director and all his reports were deemed essential. Now there’s a funny thing eh?

No one likes having to get rid of people, but surely trying to achieve a reduction in the paybill is at least as valid a way of managing the challenge?

Letting Go

Saturday morning. “Keira, you need to do your homework”. “Awww, not now, I’m watching a new episode of Wizards of Waverley Place”. We could have nagged Keira to do the work, and we didn’t. And she (and I) forgot…

Monday night. An hour after going to bed we’ve begun to relax into a quiet evening then the next thing, Keira is back downstairs dissolving in tears. She has remembered that the homework has not been done and is terrified at the thought of her name going on the board tomorrow (for someone who enjoys trying hard and keeping on the right side of the school tracks this is a biiiig deal). And from where I’m sitting, the Wizards of Waverley Place ain’t gonna be much help now. I knew that damn time freeze spell was duff.

I asked Keira to have a seat so we could chat about the problem. And as we talked – it turned out she could see the problem wasn’t so big after all. Keira reckoned:

  • She could probably get an extra day to complete her homework
  • There is a good chance that teacher can be persuaded not to write Keira’s name on the board
  • Next time the wizards may just have to wait a while.

And so to bed. Calmer now, and a lesson thought through and realised by Keira.

As a parent it is difficult not to intervene, to steer and direct the course. And I’m learning to let go, sometimes.

As an HR and communications consultant and practitioner I often see people in the workplace being nagged about stuff, and being subjected to the humiliation of “I told you so”. Maybe we should try and stop “telling you so”. The chances are we already know so, and though we may not show it in the same way Keira did, we’re feeling bad enough already without further reminder. It’s not exactly a motivating way to deal with a problem is it? The next time you see someone fluff their lines, miss a deadline, or drop a clanger, why not offer them a seat and just talk it through. They might just appreciate the chance to talk.