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    Company lays off entire department in one fell swoop with no notice: 'We were basically scapegoated'

    Is there a right way to lay someone off?

    Being laid off is one of the unfortunate realities of the working world these days. It's not an easy time for anyone, and we're all just trying to do our best. Sometimes the squeeze hits, and someone ends up on the chopping block. You hope it's not going to be you, but sometimes it is. You hope that your managers and bosses have your best interests at heart, though, and will at least let you go with some amount of dignity. This is not hard to do in these situations. It's always going to sting, but these are ways you can soften the blow. And there are ways to make your employees feel like they have even more guilt than they already do. The boss in this story chose the latter option, which is tough to face as an employee. 

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    • 01
      A woman exits a job with all of her stuff
      via Unsplash+ (Karolina Grabowska)

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • 02

      Entire office got laid off a year ago without notice.

      About a year ago, I was working for an engineering firm when we were all suddenly called into the conference room for a meeting. We thought this was concerning the annual bonus that was expected but instead the branch manager said that our office was being shut down effective immediately and that our employment there was ending.
      via unfamousstar702
    • 03
      Obviously this caught us off guard but luckily most of us. found new work within a few months including myself. The reason that we were given for the office closure was the overall firm needed to re structure.
      via unfamousstar702

    • This can be a crushing blow, even to the most secure employee. Even though no fault has been assigned to you, you might still feel like you did something wrong, and that sense of guilt can be all-consuming. Or maybe you feel anger at management for not being able to prevent this kind of situation. Either way, you probably have something to say that you hope your boss is willing to hear. You also hope that you're given some sort of cushion to fall back on when things get tough, like severance, or advanced notice. That's not what happened here. 

    • 04
      However through conversations with my former co workers, it was later discovered that only people below the position of a project manager was let go and project managers and above got offers to be moved to other offices in the firm. Most took the offer while
      via unfamousstar702
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    • 05
      others pursued other opportunities. This always bugged me because based on what my former coworkers told me, we were constantly over budget on jobs because the project manager would burn hours needlessly doing admin
      via unfamousstar702
    • 06
      A woman looks frustrated sitting at the edge of the table
      via Unsplash+ (Karolina Grabowska)

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • 07
      duties and handing off to the engineers and drafters with little to no hours remaining. This meant we were basically scapegoated.
      via unfamousstar702
    • 08
      A frustrated man sits with his head in his hands
      via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • When you feel like your boss could have prevented your layoff, this can be an especially frustrating experience. You blame their mismanagement for your current misfortune. That's what was happening here, when a former employee learned some interesting context about their previous place of work. What they thought was an unfortunate happenstance ended up seeming a lot more methodical and therefore malicious. Keep reading to see what happened in this story and then let us know what you think about it in the comments below. Maybe you've been through something like this, and you have something to add to the conversation.

    • 09
      I was recently at my new job when I was asked to join a meeting for a new project that we were basically taking over from the previous engineers. It turns out the old engineers was the same firm that let us all go.
      via unfamousstar702
    • 10
      My old brand manager joins the teams meetings but doesn't recognize me at first. He goes on to explain that this job has a lot of ground work to cover because "all the engineers and designers quit on us suddenly and left us in a bad spot."
      via unfamousstar702
    • 11
      It took all my will power to not burst out in laughter. Any thoughts?
      via unfamousstar702

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    Tags

    boss antiwork toxic-workplace job coworkers working toxic-boss workplace bad bosses
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