As the economy continues to slow, job cuts keep climbing throughout the country.
Even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks made the economy gasp, news coverage focused on the nation’s economic health, Wall Street’s call for better corporate earnings, the dot-com collapse and the millions of workers who have lost their jobs this year.
And economists say they worry that the layoffs announced in the airline industry last week could spread to other industries.
But what about the workers left behind?
Many who remain after downsizing say they feel pressure to work smarter, harder and faster, according to responses to questions posed by the Knight Ridder Newspapers, subsequent interviews and a recent national survey.
They say morale is low and they’re losing trust in their employers, especially if their co-workers were treated poorly during layoffs. A frequent refrain is: “Who’s next?” That concern was evident in preparing this story.
Nearly everyone interviewed requested anonymity for fear of angering employers.
A 3M worker in information technology said he has seen his work week climb from 36 hours to 50-plus hours in a department where half of the staff was laid off.
“We’re learning what new tasks are required,” he said. “We’ve got to pick it up quickly. You basically try and improvise what you don’t know.”
While most of the employees interviewed said they feel overworked, some say they feel underworked as business slows down.
A Fourth Shift Corp. worker told of the parent company’s latest emphasis on having fun at work, including a recent picnic on the top level of the parking ramp in 90-degree heat.
“Management says we’re going to have this fun environment and we’re going to have fun doing this and fun doing that,” said the employee. Fourth Shift, owned by AremisSoft Manufacturing and based in Bloomington, Minn., provides manufacturing and resource planning software.
But the worker said it’s hard to party when customers are complaining about service problems resulting from the layoffs. It’s also difficult to celebrate when he thinks of a co-worker who was tracked down on her vacation and told she was being laid off. The company said that was done so the employee didn’t get the news elsewhere.
A former U.S. Bancorp middle manager, who lost his job this spring after Firstar’s acquisition of his employer, spoke of a “cocooning” effect when he was still there.
“It’s not being extroverted. It’s doing as little work as possible so you can leave by 4:59. It’s doing what you have to do to not get fired.”
The fear of being laid off is hardly unfounded. Nationwide, more than 9.9 million first-time claims were filed in the six-month period, a 33 percent jump from a year ago.
While layoffs are heaviest in the airline, manufacturing and technology sectors, they also are occurring in financial services because of the stock market. Plus, some publicly traded companies that don’t make quarterly earnings expectations have turned to job cuts to shore up their stock prices and cut costs.
The impact of layoffs showed up in a March survey by the Families and Work Institute of New York.
The institute found that 42 percent of workers whose employers cut staff in the last year reported high levels of feeling overworked. That compares with 31 percent of employees feeling excessively overworked in companies that have not downsized.
“That’s a pretty sizable difference,” said James T. Bond, vice president for research for the Families and Work Institute. The remaining employees “experience significantly more pressure at work. They’re having to work very hard, they’re having to work very fast and they are not having enough time to get everything done.”
The workers remaining on the job can suffer from “layoff survivor sickness,” a term developed by David Noer in his 1995 book, “Healing the Wounds: Overcoming the Trauma of Layoffs and Revitalizing Downsized Organizations.”
Symptoms include anger and resentment that employers broke the covenant of lifetime employment, guilt over co-workers who lost their jobs and how they were treated, and anxiety about being next in line for a layoff, said Noer, who wrote his doctoral dissertation workers left behind in 10 companies across the nation.
Layoff survivor sickness can devastate not only individual employees but also employers’ bottom lines, said Noer, a consultant in Greensboro, N.C., who is a former faculty member at the University of St. Thomas.
Layoffs can also alienate customers. For example, the father of an American Express worker interviewed by Knight Ridder Newspapers moved his investments to her new employer, competitor U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray.
Another consequence is that productivity drops for a couple of years, Noer said. “Without any form of intervention, survivors don’t get better on their own–even three to four years after downsizing.”
An employee at ADC Telecommunications said he sees workers in other departments who are stressed. The Minnetonka, Minn.-based company has announced it is reducing its workforce by about 5,000 people.
“It’s just real quiet. I say, `You guys aren’t having any fun. You used to stand around and [talk]. Now you don’t.’ They don’t want anyone to see them not doing anything.”
But there has also been a positive effect, the employee said. Because travel has been reduced, employees in his area were able to savor the summer with their families and rediscover work/life balance.
Some companies appear to be recognizing the negative effects of layoffs and are trying to refocus employees. Incentives include bonuses based on reaching performance goals and free tickets to sports events or concerts.
American Express has learned it is critical to communicate with workers.
“It is impossible to over-communicate,” said Terri Anderson, a spokeswoman for the company. “One thing we’ve learned is to talk until you’re blue in the face. You never hear people say they gave me too much information. … Rumors start flying otherwise.”
Executives say it’s difficult to refocus employees after layoffs, but it can be done.
“It’s a challenge leading afterward, but it means naming a vision and direction that’s consistent and familiar to employees–such as customer service is No. 1–that gets people focused again on the core business,” said Brad Morton, vice president and general manager for Honeywell Advanced Circuits.
“But through all of this, through layoffs, through restructuring, you have to treat individuals like human beings,” said Morton, making a reference to his company’s failed merger with General Electric. “You have to recognize that changes are tough for people to understand and comprehend and you need to treat people with respect.
“Too many times, companies tend to treat people as a number,” he said. “If you head down that direction, then it’s very bad for morale and it’s very bad for human relations.”
Many workers feeling overwhelmed
The Families and Work Institute in March conducted a telephone survey of 1,000 U.S. adult workers. According to the survey, at least sometimes in the previous three months:
— 54 percent felt overworked.
— 55 percent felt overwhelmed by how much work they had to do.
— 59 percent felt they did not have time step back and reflect on the work they do.
— 90 percent agree somewhat or strongly that they experience one or more of these feelings at work:
“My job requires that I work very fast.”
“My job requires that I work very hard.”
“I never have enough time to get everything done on my job.”
— 45 percent feel they often or very often have to multi-task too much.
Source: “Feeling Overworked: When Work Becomes Too Much” by the Families and Work Institute.
— Knight Ridder Newspapers
