WORKPLACE : For Those Near the Top, Forced Exit Comes Easier
Like most things in life, there is a pecking order when it comes to getting fired.
In an era when the inevitable fallout from downsizing, restructuring, mergers, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts can cost you your job, your rank on the organizational chart could determine whether the fall is softened by severance pay, extended benefits or help in finding a new job.
“There is no greater indicator of a company’s true values than how they treat people when they are departing,” said Raymond P. Harrison, senior vice president of Manchester Inc., a career development consulting firm based in Philadelphia. “But there is great disparity in how companies treat people when they are leaving.”
Consider life after termination for the hourly worker versus top management.
In a survey by Manchester of 229 businesses, about a quarter of which are in the Washington area, length of service and level within an organization were the best insurance of a generous severance package.
Tougher Job Searches
At the bottom of the totem poll, hourly workers’ severance ranged from nothing to two weeks of pay for each year worked up to 26 weeks.
Unemployment at the top is considerably cushier. Senior managers, regardless of how long they have worked for a company, typically can expect one month of severance at a minimum. Maximum severance packages can run to two years’ pay.
Harrison pointed out that the higher up the ladder an employee is positioned, the tougher--and often longer--the job search. Hence, termination packages tend to be more generous.
Rank counts even more when it comes to “outplacement,” or receiving help in finding a new job, according to the Manchester survey.
Although 25% of companies surveyed said they provided outplacement counseling as a formal policy, position counted most in determining who gets the service. Senior executives were given individual counseling at 82% of the companies surveyed. Sixty-four percent said they offered outplacement to all employees.
How a company tailors its termination policies has become increasingly important as employees who think they have been fired unjustifiably take their complaints to court.
Hence, what has evolved during the past decade is a sort of last rites of firing. If done right, it can be less of a shocker to employees than the old “clean out your desk and get out of here” routine.
Be Quick About It
“The American way used to be that if the employer woke up on the wrong side of the bed, he fired the first person who got in his way,” said Robert Half, founder of the Robert Half International personnel recruiting firm.
Now, firing etiquette often includes offering poor performers written warnings, a chance for appeal and sometimes “corrective job coaching.” Careful documentation of the problem and process is a must, termination experts agree.
When the time comes to deliver the bad news, Robert Bies, an expert in firing at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, suggests doing it quickly with a brief explanation and then listening to the screaming of the employee--if there is any. “Don’t try and argue them out of it,” Bies suggests.
Another pitfall for companies to avoid is the traditional Friday firing, which still goes on in the majority of cases, according to Robert Half International statistics. Most often, the shoe drops in the late afternoon.
Manchester’s Harrison views carelessly executed mass firings, Friday firings and other abrupt dismissals as a company asking to be sued.
“What happens in the first hour can affect how they (fired employees) act for weeks, or even months,” Harrison said. “And it determines whether they threaten to sue or look for a job productively.”
