If you believe managers have no involvement in the layoff process, think again. Managers often collaborate with executives to push out employees they don’t favor. Be cautious—many in management prioritize profit and self-preservation over people. They’re not your friends.
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Managers in ORM are always looking out for themselves and don’t care about employees. They just want the big bonus
We lost 3 top performers last week to the location strategy axe. My manager was definitely blindsided because they had told me they had 2 low performers in mind but they weren't location strategy impacted
Mid level manager here. We already know who gets laid off many days in advance. My Sr. manager makes the layoff decisions largely based on my input. But if you are a junior level manager, probably you are kept in the dark. Junior level managers are mostly in the low level operations, so they are tretaed more like staff employees.
Nailed it. Over the years I've downsized some employees. I learn about it the day before it happens. Building closure related in all cases. They don't need/care about input from me, so I'm not brought in the loop. OP may be right in some cases, but hardly all.
It has been called "rank and yank". At GE you had a objective (thou abused) method of ranking (sick sigma). At WF, you have nothing except the subjective whims of your 1 or 2 up.
it's called failing up
I’ve seen people who were toxic to be around—always complaining, always playing the victim, and never taking accountability. Every conversation was about how management failed them, how nothing was ever good enough, and how they were always the smartest person in the room. And yet… somehow, they land a management role elsewhere. You sit there thinking, how does this happen?
This post is an over simplification
like everything around here your mileage will vary. for efficiency related layoffs a manager may be asked to provide some names at some point in the process but as to if and when, they are usually second to last to know. for location based, they maybe find out a week ahead of time. now each group is different and depending on how high level a manager they are that their involvement may be more or less. managers like all of us ICs are just trying to do our jobs and get by, I would bet most have the same complaints as you. Hard to run your team when you don't know if you'll still have a team while at the same time still having to get the work done with fewer people.
omg you are a hack. get help.
Well. Isn’t that our job?
@c6+1jvhc453k Not exactly. For example. If you are “pretty”, an azz kisser etc. good chance you can get a critical remote exception. I have seen them recently keep a younger good looking gal and axe the older worker. All while trying to gaslight that it was location strategy. Just a fact. Management is slimy.
I believe manager’s first concern will be what’s best for him or her. Not the company, division, shareholders, survivors, strategy, efficiency… shall I go on?
Our manager was new to our team after the old one left. From day one, my manager and I never got along. He was super friendly to his boss and constantly bown-nosing while he was always mean to me. His favorite motto was divide and conquer. He was also a biggest liar in the department. He told me that he was my friend, I needed to trust him, and never to question his decisions. Of course, he laid me off a few month later. I knew from day one, he wanted to get rid of me, and he just did.
Location Strategy is predetermined and consequently nothing can be done to reverse the decision.
What if we don't have a manager right now? Our manager recently displaced. And the next two managers up the food chain took other jobs in WF. Then a new manager was hired from outside to be our new manager's manager but we still don't have a direct manager. If I lose the musical chairs/displacement game I don't know who would deliver the bad news to me.
Of course manager have a say in decisions. Don't be stupid.
All facts. Can validate from personal experience and what others told me. Direct managers may deny involvement in the layoff process, but they are consulted at some point by upper management on efficiency displacement targets. They can manipulate the process to get out employees they don't like (look at as a threat) or target certain groups (over 50, high salary). Managers determine what type of work their employees do and how much work you have (are you very busy or do you have barely anything to do). They also control if the work they assign to you has visibility to leaders or not (do they give you only grunt work below your skill set. ) They control your performance reviews and can tip the scales to make an employee look like a "poor performer" (you unexpectedly get a Needs Improvement or Inconsistently Meets rating with BS "feedback"), when you have had only Meets or higher ratings in the past. There is no objective skill or experience assessment to identify which employees are more valuable than others. It's all subjective. Managers will sacrifice their employees especially if it means saving their own skins and jobs. If the manager is laid off along with their team, then they probably were blindsided and did not see it coming.
True
Yes, the executives set displacement goals and managers align to them by identifying specific candidates for displacement.
Not true if the manager is also to be included in the layoff….
Accurate. My manager told me exactly who he was laying off, when, and why. Knowledge I wished I didn’t have tbh.