View: Do your employees have survivor guilt?

33,000.

That’s the number of job cuts that were announced this week by the likes of Hewlett-Packard, JDS Uniphase and Lucent Technologies. Announced layoffs this year at U.S. companies have spiked to more than 1.1 million, according to International Strategy & Investment. This number is more than twice that of announced layoffs for all of last year.

These stories are all too familiar. We’ve all heard and read about the suddenly unemployed. But no one talks about those left behind -- the survivors.

I’m not minimizing the plight of victims of this economic downturn. I would hate to be in their shoes. It’s a tough market in which to be searching for a new job. And if you are lucky enough to have found a new job during this time, it isn’t without its own risks. As the most junior on staff, your new employer could lay you off at a moment’s notice.

But what about the survivors?

What’s going on with them could be of critical importance to your company’s ability to rebound, especially after the economy stabilizes.

Survivor Syndrome

The psychology of the survivor deserves attention. There’s concern for peers who have been pushed out of the door. They, too, have mortgages, kids in school and bills to pay. They watch to see if the casualties were treated with dignity and respect, befitting their service and dedication to your company, or if they were handed a brown box and shown the door.

There’s guilt. The cuts may have seemed arbitrary because there was no discernible rationale. In many cases, it wasn’t based on salary, seniority or necessarily skill sets. Rather, it was just a numbers game. Because of this, it’s harder for the survivors to rationalize what protected them from pink slips. Certainly George had more experience there than I. And Martha has an MBA, and I don’t.

There’s anxiety. When will the economy get better? A recent poll conducted by Maritz Research found that 50% of Americans believe that the United States currently is in a financial recession; of that total, 60% said they believe the recession will last at least another year. And specifically in telecom, the latest analyst reports suggest that wireless and telecom could be in for a very difficult 12 to 18 months yet.

The survivors are jumpy, wondering if their companies can survive and if their own days are numbered. Will they soon be joining their comrades in the unemployment line?

Add to this a new stress caused by increased workloads. Companies still are expected to deliver goods and services, even when 20%-30% of the workforce is gone. In fact, many of these same companies are seeking to develop that one new savior product or service to wow the industry and send stock prices skyward again.

Telecom companies have tightened their belts and far fewer employees populate their campuses than 12 months ago. However, there are legions of current employees who need attention. After talking with several human resource managers, what I suspected seems to be the prevailing truth.

“Companies are so busy trying to manage their bottom lines, they aren’t doing anything to salvage their current employees or their relationships with them,” said one 20-year veteran.

If that’s the case, the telecom industry is in for more than just economic trouble. Companies need to make time in their schedules to address the Survivor Syndrome. Otherwise, they may come out on the other side of this ugly business era with unmotivated, unproductive employees who have no loyalty to their companies and who will join the competition the first chance they get.

What Management Must Do

Yes, this is an awful time in your company’s history. You’ve had to eliminate positions and throw people’s lives into turmoil. But now is not the time to hide in your offices behind stacks of budget reports and EBITDA tracking sheets.

Communicate more than ever. You have to win back their trust.

Talk to your team about how the company’s doing. Tell them how they figure into this newly edited picture. Let them know how they are doing.

“People follow strong leaders,” another human resource director told me.

Share your department’s goals with your staffs. Let them know what’s going on and how you plan to make it happen. This should be a realistic view of your company and your department in today’s economic climate.

Don’t sugar-coat it. Your employees already have seen the damages wrought thus far. They know it’s a tough world out there. Tell them the truth.

Don’t act as if you everything is out of your hands. Blaming all that’s happening on your upper managers will earn you a reputation of a yes person, or worse, a helpless pawn. Your employees, now more than ever, look for someone who will keep them informed of relevant developments, but also for someone who will fight for the important agendas. They want someone who’s going to lead them out of this crisis.

Avoid being defensive. Certainly, these are the days when your employees will ask hard questions. Don’t lash out at them. They’re doing the best they can with what they know. If they’re asking, they’re probably interested in seeing things through to the other side. Enlist them, don’t push them away.

What Employees Must Do

Communication shouldn’t only be top-down. Employees also have a responsibility to state their concerns, ask questions, expect answers and, whenever possible, prevent the rumor mill from being their only source of information. Trepidation could lock you into inactivity. But now is the time to get busy. Yes, there’s more work for fewer employees to do in less time and possibly with less money. However, here’s your chance to step up to the plate and show management all of your talents and capabilities.

Before you might have been pigeon-holed in a certain position, which dictated that you limit your contributions. The company didn’t really need you to stretch much because there were other people performing those functions. But now is your chance to strut your stuff.

There’s sometimes a tendency to resist change during tough times. Some people might resentfully claim they were overworked before, and certainly don’t plan on taking on additional responsibilities … especially if they might get laid off tomorrow.

This is loser thinking. First, you owe it to yourself to challenge yourself everyday to be the best you can be. Second, on every team of employees, those with a loser or victim mentality stand out – and not in a good way. If that next wave of cuts comes, you very well may be waving a flag -- begging the company to pick you.

What suggestions do you have for management and employees in this new economy? Write rwickham@primediabusiness.com.