Juggling with the layoff/trust off paradox

You have worked for three decades in the company. One fine morning you get up. It is 6am. You put your coffee percolator on. You mentally start ticking all the tasks/meetings you need to do. You login to your computer. There is a new email just received. You are fired. That’s it. Just some standard email sent to 30,000 people saying, “After careful consideration of current business needs, we have made the decision to “eliminate your role” as part of a broader organizational change.”

How does this sound? How does this look? How does this feel? It is a legally vetted email. Every company has the right to take these decisions. Companies are in trouble due to a geo-political situation. Companies have to look at their bottom lines. Companies are not charity organizations. All these are correct positions. Having said that, these employees are not AI agents to be clicked off; these are human beings. The words “eliminate your role” in the email sound more like pushing the “delete” button on the computer to trash the unwanted software waste.

The corporate world, and especially the world of the multinationals, has become a paradox. For centuries we have all looked at their approach and best practices. Their business model has been a model of growth and success. Their policies have inspired case studies. Their practices have become the path to follow. Their studies on leadership and human resource management led the way keeping people as the key driver of decisions. That is why what is happening all around in this hour of emergency has made all the claims of human-centric approach seem hollow. The current series of layoffs by some of the biggest names in the world has sent the tongues rolling. Some say it is the war. Some say it is not the war but AI. Some say it is neither, just an excuse for squeezing more profits. Whatever the reason may be it is creating negative speculation. While many within these multinationals are not going on this route, overall it is tainting the reputed brands. The impact of sudden layoffs can shake the best of organization culture. Let us look at some negative effects of such terminations:

1. Layoff Impact#1-The Instant Retaliation-Gone are the days where a company would layoff employees with minor repercussions. In those times a rare employee would go to court and some mud would sling on the brand, only to fall flat with time. This is a world where every voice has a platform. The Instant jump by employees on instagram is a killer. Employees who are fired, and fired instantly, get on the “Upload in seconds” bandwagon. They speak. They vent. They threat. They urge. They urge others to do the same. Soon the logarithms start teeming. The one video view by a viewer gets a swarm of the same videos on multiple feeds. It seems as if nothing more nasty can happen. It seems as if nothing more vicious has happened. Soon the virality forces influencers to make reviews of it. Those reviews get analyzed by analyzers. The analyzed reels get responded by anybody and everybody. The life of an action gets elongated by the virality of the news. This can go on for months.

2. Layoff impact#2-The tarnished reputation- In such a case where the screaming going on in the social media is not ending, the company is under pressure. In previous eras, time was a great eraser. Media was manipulated by companies through Ad spend and they could run PR campaigns to manage their image. No longer. The social media is in control of the content and content maker. Anything spicy and sensational is a beast out of control. With days on end of all sort of speculation, the company does try to show the other side of the story. Normally, companies very subtly through some so-called neutral analysts try to give the company point. They try to manage a debate where supposed public members also support their point of view. If anything, it adds fuel to fire. People start berating those shows as paid stunts creating more bad press.

3. Layoff impact#3-The toxic environment-The most important factor is not how long it will take to let this uproar die down, but how long it will take to wash away the toxicity it causes to the employees who are still in the company. Trust is the biggest casualty. Employees who remain may suffer from: A, Survivor Syndrome-feeling unsure, guilty and ashamed of being with such a company. B, Quiet Quitting- the employees may feel that if this can happen to so many, it may soon happen to them. They start looking for other opportunities. They do come to the office but just physically. They mentally and emotionally quit. This creates a huge dip in productivity and loyalty. C, Trust Deficit- most employees feel their leaders are not what they seem to be. They distrust any of the reassurances given to them by their leaders. There is a serious nosedive in engagement. Politics in the office gets a life of its own. The workday is more of feeling and feeding the grapevine than real work.

The most important asset of the company is not the flashy offices and machines but the trust associated with the company. Trust is developed by what internal and external customers feel and say about you. Employee trust is the biggest factor, which brings in loyalty and engagement. A culture that breeds distrust breeds fear and uncertainty. When people feel unsafe job-wise, voicing their opinion-wise, response of their leader-wise, it is a matter of time that the company loses its position. Do not forget Nokia layoffs. Do not forget Toys “R” Us layoffs. Nokia that was a market leader removed employees in such a fashion. The remaining disheartened employees could not see the obvious smartphone takeover. Arrogance does come before a fall. Organizations, no matter how big and moneyed, are made by people. When organizations treat employees like disposable and dispensable beings, the human element reacts. That reaction has a far-reaching echo, an echo that stays, an echo that reverberates, an echo that penetrates, an echo that devastates-eventually the headline, the top line, and the bottom line.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026