Realizing they may need to hire again soon, bosses want to retain the loyalty of those staffers who are left behind. N.C. Some concerns help laid-off staffers by reaching out to their communities. Motorola Inc., which is eliminating 2,500 of the nearly 5,000 jobs at its Harvard, Ill., plant, has teamed up with the local economic-development committee to find job leads for affected employees. Lucent Technologies Inc., which faces the tough task of cutting 10,000 jobs, now requires managers to attend training to learn how to wield the ax. The telecommunications-equipment maker used to make the training voluntary.
Salaried employees can also get information through the company's intranet service.
Even a few downsizing dot-coms are devising gentler approaches. The Internet industry has been widely criticized for shoddy layoff practices, such as ordering staffers to leave company premises immediately. The 66 pink-slip recipients were given several days to say goodbye to colleagues and clean out their desks. Emusic also tried to buck up morale among the 40 employees who remained at headquarters. The dot-com closed a portion of its floor so survivors wouldn't have to look at all the empty desks.