Leadership and layoffs: cold reflections on power games within the enterprise.
In the contemporary corporate environment, leadership undoubtedly plays a vital role. And when companies are under pressure to lay off employees, the impact of leadership is even more profound. Recently, a department determined the proportion of layoffs and allocated quotas to each small team. The allocation of places has become a microcosm of an internal power game.
How are places allocated? In many cases, the answer is in the hands of the leadership. For diligent employees, leaders can consider their positions unimportant; For technical talents, leaders can consider them to be over 35 years old; For capable young people, leaders can consider them too impetuous. In short, the quota in the hands of the leader is like a precise caliper, and he can always find the right reason to decide to stay.
Interestingly, when leaders were offered redundant spots and were ready to be assigned, team members reacted differently. Some people are scrambling to be made redundant because of the generous compensation for layoffs and the possibility of higher salaries for re-employment. However, there are also team members who struggle to avoid being made redundant, trying to show how important they are to their leadership and fearing layoffs. At this time, the relationship with the leader is particularly important.
In this layoff turmoil, the leaders also played their own "small abacus". For those employees who may threaten their position, leaders often consider putting them on the list of layoffs first. For those who perform well, leaders may choose to retain. This layoff turmoil has undoubtedly become a good opportunity for some leaders to adjust their teams and exclude dissidents.
So when you're being made redundant, it's not that you're incompetent or industrious. Maybe you're in a department with a lot of slots, or maybe you're capable but don't have a good relationship with your leadership. In short, in this power game within the enterprise, the fate of the layoffs is often not in their own hands.