She’s a human resources manager at a manufacturing company that plans to lay off around 30 people.
“It’s never good and it affects everyone all around,” she says.
She says the layoffs are the result of automation.
“We are adding more machines that can work themselves, pretty much.”
Having to execute the layoffs is burdensome, she says. Many of those being let go are longtime employees at a company with a long history.
“Many become your family. You’ve seen them grow, you’ve seen their children grow. You’ve seen their family members die. You’ve been sharing life with them, and it hurts.”
She says the company is trying to lessen the blow to the employees by providing severance packages, offering training in new skills and even placing them in new jobs. Not all companies do that, she says.
“Huge companies lay you off and, no notice, no severance package – Here’s your final check; move on. That’s it,” she says.
She’s trying to help where she can. One woman came to her wanting to quit for personal reasons. But knowing that the layoffs were coming, she convinced the woman to stay on, knowing that she’d soon receive severance benefits.
Being the bearer of bad news weighs on her.
“[They] will definitely look at me as the bad guy,” she says. “Why didn’t I share it? Why didn’t I save them? It keeps me up at night. It keeps me thinking, How can we go about doing this without hurting so much?”
She hopes that no one will retaliate against her.
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Written by Caroline Covington.
