Many of today's employees have an underlying wariness of corporate America's obsession with downsizing. Any teamwork established before the downsizing is difficult to maintain or recreate. Innovation and creativity are temporarily stifled as workers remain uncertain and conservative. Workers may wonder if further cuts are coming. With downsizing, trust is then replaced by fear.
Fear generates mediocrity.
Mediocrity leads to atrophy. Atrophy leads to sickness. Sickness leads to death. Perhaps the most damaging aspect of downsizing is the diversion away from improvements to key business processes and core customer requirements. They may view downsizing as the magic pill, a silver bullet, instant karma, or some other panacea.