The emotional toll of executing layoffs

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the economy, news of companies doing layoffs keep on coming.

Even big-name tech companies have been forced to make cuts: Airbnb, Uber, Tripadvisor, Bird… the list goes on. Closer to home, Careem, Oyo, Zilingo, Klook, Traveloka, and Oriente have also been affected.

Photo credit: Markus Spiske

Layoffs in each firm have been handled differently.

While Zilingo has been criticized for their execution, they handled the situation far better than Bird did. Tripadvisor’s and Airbnb’s businesses have been all but decimated, but they are still sitting on comfortable cash cushions, which means they can do things in a much better (and definitely more humane) way.

Beyond judging which companies did it right and which ones did it wrong based on the headlines, I would like to share some personal experiences, having executed a few layoffs myself.

DIY layoffs

The first one happened about five years ago when I was managing an operations team at a Rocket Internet company in Singapore. For whatever reason, we were having a tough time and had no choice but to lay off about 40% of the staff.

Truth be told, none of us had the experience of properly conducting a layoff and we were not in a position to hire expensive consultants. Like everything in a series A+ startup, we did it DIY style.

So we sat down with our target post-layoff payroll cost and a list of names. I have to admit that no matter how strong I pretended to be in front of bosses and investors, deciding which employees to let go wasn’t easy. I knew every single person working at the company and how committed they had been while working with me through many challenges. We had gone out for lunch and gotten drunk together at company gatherings plenty of times.

I suppose this is why bigger companies choose to hire consultants to handle layoffs: These professionals have no emotional attachments to the staff and can theoretically conduct the process better. But they are also human beings.

We spent a few hours working on the list, but it felt like ages. We were all exhausted by the end of it, but the more daunting task still lay ahead: communicating to the people who would be directly affected, and talking to those who would be staying.

Going through the process of conducting a town hall and holding individual meetings took an entire day, even though only 25 people were let go. Some cried, some were angry; I had to pretend I was calm no matter whom I was talking to. I am sure other colleagues who were doing the same with their respective teams felt the way I did.

Does it get easier each time?

Unfortunately, the nature of startups guaranteed that this experience would not be my last. I had to do it three more times since.

Some of them happened in satellite offices outside Singapore, where I had to fly in to spend a few days and work with local management as they go through the process.

Colleagues, alumni, friends