Layoffs – Are our CEOs jumping the bandwagon?

Almost all of a sudden it is here. Only recently we heard of it oceans away. Today, Bhutanese employees in the corporate world are feeling the heat. It is happening to their colleagues. Their turn could be just round the corners.

Different companies have their own terms. It was “voluntary resignation” at the RICBL. It was “downsizing” at the Bhutan Times. RCSC called it the “early retirement scheme”. Some call it trimming. Some do it in the name of survival, cost cutting, efficiency, restructuring and what not. But all of it means someone having to say to his family, “I am out of job”.

Layoffs are increasingly becoming a part of the Bhutanese corporate culture. Our CEOs are getting used to the prospect of closing the door, looking straight into the face and telling him that the company doesn’t need him anymore. Often this curtsy is also found uncalled for. A “compulsory resignation” notice – an euphemism of termination – awaits the employee on his table on a normal day of work. Significantly, the trend of corporate layoffs is accepted too easily by the employees, the companies and the Bhutanese society.

Because corporate all over the world and especially reputed companies do it, are our CEOs jumping the bandwagon? Layoffs in Bhutan, perhaps, are too easily opted as a strategic choice without actually considering numerous alternatives. The sheer incidences of layoffs happening in thousands of companies have almost automatically earned for itself as the only strategic choice for progress. Many CEOs justify loss of jobs of a few employees to retain the jobs of everybody else in the company. Interestingly many CEOs have also failed to consider the alternatives and to weigh the negative consequences of laying off people. This can especially be true in case of the Bhutanese corporate world.

Many studies have found that most companies who wanted things fixed through layoffs have actually not fixed anything. In-fact the problems apparently have become more complex and intensified. Throwing out people generates mistrust amongst those who remain. Management would be looked upon as an unfeeling and a cruel enemy rather than a trust worthy friend in times of need. If employees are treated like machines that can be switched on and off and embraced and ignored on short term whims, so shall the employees treat the company.

Layoffs can thus, typically effect loyalty, trust, commitment, self- sacrifice – all essential ingredients for the corporate success. In the final analysis, layoff kills the very ingredient for success which is the primary goal of layoff in the first place.

CEOs must therefore exhaust all other choices before embarking on layoffs. Indeed it should be the last resort because the CEO is primarily responsible for the situation which calls for a layoff. The employee should not be made to pay for the situation for which he had no role. The company has the moral obligation to save the employee from situation where he has to tell his family, “I am out of job”.