Retrenchment reactions reflect sentiment

Retrenchment reactions reflect sentiment

Violent outbursts are rare at retrenchment announcement meetings, in fact I can only recall one chair being thrown in our 19 years of operation. The vast majority of people experience a mix of anger, disappointment and anxiety about the future. These emotions are usually measured and often emerge in the early part of their outplacement program.

Strong emotional outbursts, however, have escalated in the past few months. This worrying trend reflects the negative sentiment in the employment market with people being increasingly concerned about the probability of finding another job. Professionals and middle managers are particularly concerned as many companies are trimming these roles.
 
Unfortunately, there is an inverse relationship between emotions and intelligence: as emotions go up, intelligence goes down. Thus the increase in strong emotional outbursts at retrenchment announcements.

Our team of career development consultants are finding that the intensity of support during outplacement programs has increased, however, people are still finding jobs within a reasonable time frame. The jobs are there, they are just harder to find.

More than ever, now is the time to ensure retrenchment processes are handled as effectively as possible to minimise the negative impact on those effected, and those staying.