When Dismissing Employees, Retaining Person's Dignity Eases Blow Chicago Daily Herald Pat Karlak and Lisa Friedman Miner Stripping someone of their job doesn't have to mean stripping them of their dignity, too. Those responsible for handing out pink slips say it's possible to deliver the bad news with some degree of tact. She believes that's because many companies, particularly dot-com ventures, are unprepared to conduct layoffs, and don't think about them from the employee's perspective. No matter the circumstances behind the layoffs, Mendez believes they can be accomplished in decent fashion.
Companies are too caught up in financial concerns.
Top management kind of forgets about the targeted employees. More often, they're thinking about their own welfare than the dignity of others. If they tell employees in advance, they might leave them in the lurch. There are things they want them to accomplish before they lay them off. People who were laid off in recent months are, on the whole, in better shape than people who were let go a decade ago, says John Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm.