Career Advice By Randy

The Ones Left Behind

Those who have lost their jobs may be surprised to learn that they may be the lucky ones.  A book called “Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers” that will be coming out next year, provides this, and other, insights. 

From 1996 to 2006, research was done on the inner workings of Boeing.  Huge layoffs, of over thirty percent of their employees, were performed during this time period, and the researchers were there to see it all.

Not surprisingly to anyone who has been through a series of layoffs, layoffs are stressful.  The employees who are not fired work hard to prove themselves to the new managers that often come and go, starting the process all over again. 

What is being called “survivor’s guilt” also appears to be a big problem for continuing employees.  Managers especially suffered from guilt, and tended to withdraw emotionally.  Workers worried about lost knowledge that disappeared with employees who were fired, making their jobs more difficult.

The researchers noticed a lot of dark humor in surviving employees, a common trend for people in extremely stressful positions, such as doctors.  Ongoing employees were more likely to be depressed and to drink heavily than employees who were let go.

The stress of not knowing whether their job would be there tomorrow was blamed for some of these problems.  Those who were fired or left spoke of the relief that they felt to be away from that source of anxiety.

According to the team of researchers, although conditions have dramatically improved at Boeing, many employees never entirely recovered from the strain of that time period, still joking about the instability of their job there.

Three thousand-five hundred employees were examined for this study, which is detailed in the forthcoming book from Yale University Press.