tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/redundancies-2337/articlesRedundancies – The Conversation2024-01-11T17:16:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2033642024-01-11T17:16:09Z2024-01-11T17:16:09ZRedundancies have unintended consequences for all employees, even those who keep their jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519774/original/file-20230406-16-wkkmb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=226%2C197%2C6248%2C3420&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-shot-asian-sad-jobless-businesswoman-2179277135">Bangkok Click Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tech giants including X (then known as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/02/twitter-reportedly-ready-to-cut-about-3700-employees.html">Twitter</a>) and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/14/tech/meta-layoffs">Facebook owner Meta</a> announced thousands of job cuts globally in 2022 and 2023, as did other firms like entertainment company <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/27/media/disney-layoffs/index.html">Disney</a>, consultancy firm <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/kpmg-lay-off-about-6-deal-advisory-staff-uk-source-2023-10-17/">KPMG</a> and phone company <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/vodafone-plans-11-000-job-cuts-as-new-boss-rues-performance-12881966">Vodafone</a>. And let’s not forget those making redundancies as a result of company collapses such as UK retailer <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/further-9-100-wilko-employees-to-be-made-redundant-after-rescue-deal-collapses-administrators-say-12959338#:%7E:text=News%20%7C%20Sky%20News-,Further%209%2C100%20Wilko%20employees%20to%20be%20made%20redundant%20after%20rescue,find%20a%20buyer%20for%20them.">Wilko</a>. In the UK alone, the number of <a href="https://www.gqlittler.com/resources/news-and-views/spike-in-redundancies-for-uk-businesses.htm">planned redundancies</a> by companies increased by 54% over the last year, from 153,635 to 237,017.</p>
<p>This is likely to continue. Businesses are dealing with <a href="https://ifamagazine.com/number-of-planned-redundancies-in-the-uk-increases-54-in-the-past-year-amid-economic-instability/#:%7E:text=Sharp%20rises%20in%20borrowing%20costs,the%20specialist%20employment%20law%20firm.">sharp rises in borrowing costs</a> and <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours#:%7E:text=Annual%20growth%20in%20regular%20earnings,in%20August%20to%20October%202023.">continued wage growth</a>, at the same as consumer spending is falling, affecting industries like <a href="https://www.adnews.com.au/news/a-redundancy-rush-as-the-industry-prepares-for-a-slow-start-to-2024">advertising</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/29/britons-cut-back-on-dining-out-and-buying-clothes-barclays-reveals">retail</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, such news has a very direct impact on those that lose their jobs. But all employees are impacted by reductions in a workforce. The employees made redundant are undoubtedly the victims, but those at risk are semi-victims, even if they are redeployed into another role. </p>
<p>Even the survivors – employees that don’t get laid off – are affected by stress and increased workloads in some cases. And let’s not forget the “bringers of bad news”: the management and HR teams that have to execute the layoff process may also feel stress or guilt.</p>
<p>Each group experiences job cuts in a very different way, of course. But there are some consistencies in how all are affected – and in how to help.</p>
<h2>1. Decreased trust leading to a toxic work environment</h2>
<p>As soon as redundancies are announced, the <a href="https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/psychological-factsheet/">“psychological contract”</a> that outlines the relationship between employees and employer is damaged. Essentially, <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003030416/strategic-redundancy-implementation-madeleine-stevens">trust is breached</a> as the worker’s expectations and beliefs about their employer are challenged. The idea that everyone is working towards a common goal can be shattered by a redundancy announcement.</p>
<p>When trust is broken in this way, employees might start making decisions about their loyalty and commitment. Experiencing <a href="https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/double-jeopardy-surreptitious-consequences-redundancy">an “unsafe” environment psychologically</a>, or low levels of job insecurity, can encourage people to look for new work opportunities – sometimes before redundancies are even announced. Consequently, organisations might <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003030416/strategic-redundancy-implementation-madeleine-stevens">lose talented and skilled staff</a> that they would have saved from redundancy. </p>
<h2>2. Psychological stress leading to increased absenteeism</h2>
<p>All employees can experience significant levels of stress <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003030416/strategic-redundancy-implementation-madeleine-stevens">during a layoff process</a>. For those made redundant, this stress is exacerbated by financial concerns about how they will pay their bills. The feelings of helplessness and anxiety over a job loss could lead to ill mental and physical health.</p>
<p>Semi-survivors (those whose jobs were at risk but ultimately weren’t made redundant) and survivors often also experience stress due to an increased workload. They may have to pick up additional duties previously carried out by employees who have been made redundant. Leaders can also <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2021.1976246">experience stress</a>. They deal with disgruntled employees, but they also usually have to deliver the unpleasant news of job losses in the first place. </p>
<h2>3. Job insecurity leading to loss of talent</h2>
<p>Once people experience the kind of breach of trust that can come with mass lay-offs, it can lead to feelings of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2021.1976246">job insecurity and low morale</a>. You might think to yourself: “I may as well get ahead of the game and find another job now.” Or: “Why would I stay with this organisation? Do my bosses even know what they are doing?”</p>
<p>So, whether other workers are due to lose their jobs or not, they may start to apply for alternative roles. And in most situations, it’s unsurprising that the most talented employees, and those that are highly skilled, can often easily find new employment. A voluntary exit of workers at the same time as or after a redundancy programme can cause significant damage to the business if skilled and talented employees that are imperative to operational success leave at a time of organisational vulnerability. </p>
<p>Social media platform X (then known as Twitter) found this to be the case after making redundancies in November 2022. Around 1,000 employees <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/21/23472025/elon-musk-twitter-hiring-again-ending-layoffs">resigned voluntarily</a> after redundancy announcements were made following the sale of the business to Elon Musk. The employer/employee power shifted and the company had to start rehiring or replacing valuable, highly skilled employees, having only just made redundancies.</p>
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<img alt="Young professionals company employees diverse staff members gather together sit on chairs brainstorming solving working moments having dispute express opinion point of view." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519775/original/file-20230406-26-mbj9mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519775/original/file-20230406-26-mbj9mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519775/original/file-20230406-26-mbj9mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519775/original/file-20230406-26-mbj9mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519775/original/file-20230406-26-mbj9mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519775/original/file-20230406-26-mbj9mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519775/original/file-20230406-26-mbj9mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Communication should be an important part of a layoffs plan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-professionals-company-employees-diverse-staff-1770506714">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Tackling the hidden consequences of redundancies</h2>
<p>What can employers do to limit the unforeseen consequences of workforce stress during redundancies?</p>
<p>First of all, communicating redundancies with compassion can help keep employees on board. Communication should come from the top, with the leadership team owning the message. But it also needs to be a two-way process, allowing all employees to have their questions answered. My research with Claire Hannibal into so-called <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2021.1976246">“redundancy envoys”</a> (those who deliver the redundancy message) shows that the rationale for job cuts needs to be transparent, clearly communicated and fully understood by employees.</p>
<p>Second, each impacted group needs support that is tailored to their needs. Providing more generous compensation packages for victims of redundancy can help to alleviate immediate financial concerns. Employers can also help them network with companies that are hiring, or connect them with organisations providing training and skills for new roles, or that educate people about self-employment or retirement.</p>
<p>Employers should also offer career and trauma counselling support to all employees. This will help them understand and manage the range of emotions they may feel – from guilt, anger and resentment, to stress and sadness.</p>
<p>Finally, employers need to think carefully about job design for the remaining roles. Due to increased workloads and survivors often having to pick up new sills, every role must be realigned with the organisation’s revised vision. Employees should be supported to understand any new tasks they need to prioritise – and which tasks they no longer have to fulfil. Providing training and development will also help to rebuild employee’s confidence in the organisation.</p>
<p>Although making redundancies is very unpleasant for the whole workforce, there are ways for employers to undertake the process with compassion, treating all employees – whether they’re leaving or staying – with dignity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeleine Stevens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Company layoffs can have unintended consequences, even for those spared from redundancy.Madeleine Stevens, Reader in Organisational Transformation and Teaching Innovation, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1993242023-02-08T10:58:09Z2023-02-08T10:58:09ZHow tech companies are failing women workers and social media users – and what to do about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508328/original/file-20230206-25-p6o6gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C386%2C2928%2C1302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lerbank-bbk22/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From Elon Musk’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-elon-musks-first-week-as-twitter-owner-has-users-flocking-elsewhere-193857">erratic start</a> as Twitter’s new owner to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/technology/meta-layoffs-facebook.html">Meta’s recent decision</a> to layoff more than 11,000 employees, and an ongoing <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/28f7e49f-09b3-407f-82f8-56683f5d0663">downturn for tech stocks</a>, the social media sector is once again in turmoil. </p>
<p>But while these latest shockwaves have attracted a great deal of public attention, we talk considerably less of their repercussions on women. Big tech companies are failing women on both sides of the screen: their employees and the users of their services. This is why recent moves to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/04/online-safety-bill-needs-tougher-rules-on-misogyny-say-peers">regulate social media firms</a> should include specific protections for women.</p>
<p>Online abuse, as has been <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03093">repeatedly confirmed by academic research</a> and <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2018/03/online-violence-against-women-chapter-1-1/">civil rights groups</a>, often targets women users. One of Musk’s first acts after buying Twitter was to introduce verification to reduce the number of fake accounts. Such accounts are <a href="https://www.compassioninpolitics.com/three_quarters_of_those_experiencing_online_abuse_say_it_comes_from_anonymous_accounts">often cited</a> among the main causes of social media violence. But the <a href="https://www.cleanuptheinternet.org.uk/post/what-do-elon-musk-s-blue-tick-experiments-mean-for-the-uk-s-online-safety-bill">authentication process</a> (since withdrawn after protests from the Twitter community) simply relied on “certified” profiles paying a monthly fee. </p>
<p>As such, the move seemed more like a way to raise revenues than an effective online safety strategy. To make things worse, and more or less simultaneously, Musk also controversially <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/01/18/which-controversial-figures-has-elon-musk-reinstated-on-twitter">restored the accounts</a> of several high-profile figures previously banned for misogynistic discourse. This included self-defined “sexist” influencer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/06/andrew-tate-violent-misogynistic-world-of-tiktok-new-star">Andrew Tate</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/elon-musks-twitter-blue-gives-verification-for-a-fee-this-could-make-twitter-even-less-safe-for-women-193967">Elon Musk's 'Twitter Blue' gives verification for a fee – this could make Twitter even less safe for women</a>
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<p>Beyond the tycoon’s chaotic approach to leadership, these decisions indicate wider trends within the social media industry with far-reaching ramifications for women. </p>
<p>Over the last few years, in fact, platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok have all responded to mounting public pressure by adopting more stringent guidelines against <a href="https://www.epe.admin.cam.ac.uk/five-things-you-should-know-about-digital-gender-based-violence-dgbv-and-ways-curb-it">gender-based hate speech</a>. These changes, however, have been mostly achieved through <a href="https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/iiclr/pdf/vol32p97.pdf">self-regulation</a> and voluntary partnerships with the public sector. This approach leaves companies free to reverse previous decisions in the way Musk has.</p>
<p>Besides, censoring individual internet personalities and promoting account verification doesn’t actually address the core causes of social media violence. The actual design of these platforms and the business models these companies employ play a more central role. </p>
<p>Social media platforms want to keep us all online to produce profitable data and maintain audiences for advertisements. They do this with algorithms that create an echo chamber. This means we keep seeing content similar to whatever attracted our clicks in the first place. But research shows this also facilitates the <a href="https://intpolicydigest.org/how-social-media-is-fueling-divisiveness/">circulation of “divisive” messages</a>. It also supports the <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/from-individual-perpetrators-to-global-mobilisation-strategies-th">spread of online sexism</a>, and pushes users that view problematic materials into a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/30/global-incel-culture-terrorism-misogyny-violent-action-forums">black hole</a>” of related updates.</p>
<p>While the platforms themselves have become problematic for women that use them, many of the companies behind them are also failing the women workers that build and manage online social media networks.</p>
<h2>Tech company redundancies</h2>
<p>Social media companies’ treatment of employees should also be examined through a gender lens, particularly more recently as they <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/economic-downturn-tech-industry-layoffs-stock-plunge-funding-slowdown-2022-6?r=US&IR=T">react to a market downturn</a> with mass layoffs and other cost-cutting strategies.</p>
<p>A particularly at-risk category (which I have examined, among others, in my <a href="https://septemberpublishing.org/product/the-threat-why-digital-capitalism-is-sexist-and-how-to-resist/">recently published book</a>) is that of <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebook-content-moderator-interviews-trauma-working-conditions-arizona">social media moderators</a>. These employees are charged with the task of cleaning up platforms of content that violates community standards. They are constantly exposed to misogynistic hate speech, images of sexual violence and non-consensual pornography. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/12/facebook-content-moderator-ptsd/">Female staff</a> tend to feel especially triggered and many <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/12/21255870/facebook-content-moderator-settlement-scola-ptsd-mental-health">develop mental health issues</a>, including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result.</p>
<p>Social media firms and their international subcontractors (to which large part of moderation operations are outsourced) make other choices that also infringe on employees’ rights, particularly female moderators. One of the latest has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/26/teleperformance-call-centre-staff-monitored-via-webcam-home-working-infractions">placing AI-powered cameras</a> in the homes of moderators who work remotely. This is a particularly brutal intrusion for women since they already often face harassment or safety issues in more public spaces.</p>
<p>Online abuse and workers’ treatment concern people of all genders. Women, however, pay a unique price for social media violence. Recent <a href="https://onlineviolencewomen.eiu.com/">research from The Economist</a> shows fear of new aggressions pushed nine out of ten female victims surveyed to alter their digital habits – 7% even quit their jobs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman looks at laptop; home in background; remote working." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508333/original/file-20230206-15-ysb1s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508333/original/file-20230206-15-ysb1s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508333/original/file-20230206-15-ysb1s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508333/original/file-20230206-15-ysb1s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508333/original/file-20230206-15-ysb1s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508333/original/file-20230206-15-ysb1s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508333/original/file-20230206-15-ysb1s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Moderators delete posts that violate community standards on social media and so are regularly exposed to disturbing content.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">fizkes/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Specific solutions to online hate</h2>
<p>Just as women workers and users encounter specific issues as a result of social media policies – or lack thereof – the interventions designed to improve their safety and wellbeing should also be specific.</p>
<p>My book looks at how digital capitalists – including but not limited to social media corporations – fail female users and workers, and <a href="https://gen-pol.org/2019/11/when-technology-meets-misogyny-multi-level-intersectional-solutions-to-digital-gender-based-violence/">how to remedy this</a>. Among the reforms I suggest are interventions to make platforms more accountable. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3137">UK Online Safety Bill</a> is set to give regulators the power to fine or prosecute companies that neglect to remove harmful materials, for example. It is important, though, that policy change in this area specifically identifies women as a protected category, which this bill <a href="https://demos.co.uk/blog/the-online-safety-bill-will-it-protect-women-online/">currently fails to do</a>. Transparency commitments for platforms’ algorithms and regulations around data-mining business models could also help but are so far not yet – or not fully – integrated into most national and international legislation.</p>
<p>And since workers must be protected as much as technology users, it is vital that <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-content-moderators-ireland">they can organise via trade unions</a>, and that there is a push to ensure employers respect their duty of care towards the workforce. This might involve prohibiting invasive workplace surveillance, for example.</p>
<p>There is one solution to both issues: it is time for social media giants to implement specific strategies to safeguard women on both sides of the screen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lilia Giugni is affiliated with GenPol - Gender & Policy Insights, a UK-based feminist think tank, and with the Royal Society of Arts.</span></em></p>Women need better protection from online hate and misogyny, both while using social media and when working for technology companies.Lilia Giugni, Research Associate, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1857942022-06-28T14:41:14Z2022-06-28T14:41:14ZRedundancy: what to know about your rights when an employer lets you go<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471385/original/file-20220628-27-j3zebs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5588%2C3723&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Companies making redundancies should treat both dismissed employees and those that remain with compassion.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-firing-job-loss-concept-fired-1372686632">Syda Productions/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the biggest rail strikes in 30 years has been playing out in recent weeks as 40,000 workers protest <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/07/rail-workers-to-stage-three-day-strike-in-june-over-possible-job-losses?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter">the threat of job cuts</a>. Their employer, Network Rail, wants to lay off <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/06/21/rail-chiefs-vow-dump-outdated-working-practices-amid-standoff/">up to 1,800 people</a> as it prepares to introduce new technologies in an attempt to save more than £100 million annually following a post-pandemic drop in passenger numbers. </p>
<p>Transport secretary Grant Shapps has claimed this industrial action will <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2022/06/19/new-strike-warning-as-teachers-and-nhs-threaten-action-in-autumn-16852617/">cost around</a> £150 million in lost revenue, in addition to a £450 million hit to the wider UK economy. With such significant costs expected, not to mention the ongoing impact on individual travellers, the government has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61906531#:%7E:text=A%20Department%20for,taxpayers%2C%22%20they%20added.">called on</a> the parties involved – the rail operators and the unions representing the workers – to agree a deal via negotiations.</p>
<p>We already saw the impact of a company taking such matters into its own hands earlier this year when P&O Ferries <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/p-o-ferries-makes-800-staff-redundant-and-warns-of-significant-disruption-to-services-over-next-few-days-12568327">dismissed 800 employees</a> without notice as it tried to make savings. In the current situation, Network Rail’s management is following a process of consultation with affected employees. It has offered voluntary redundancy in an attempt to limit the impact of its plans for modernisation that will lead to the redundancies, with more than 5,000 workers applying so far, according to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/06/12/rail-workers-inundate-voluntary-redundancy-scheme-despite/">news reports</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, redundancies are a fact of life for businesses, particularly in difficult times like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/jun/27/cost-of-living-crisis-uk-recession-russia-default-strike-pay-business-live">current economic environment</a>. In such circumstances, businesses often choose to make redundancies to create a more sustainable future for the company as a whole. And while making employees redundant tends to be an unpleasant experience for all parties involved, the impact is, of course, most significant for the employees that are losing their jobs. Companies must therefore find a way to implement redundancies with compassion, providing clear communication for all employees during the process, as well as offering ongoing tools and support to the employees that lose their jobs and those that remain.</p>
<h2>Setting expectations</h2>
<p>So what should you expect? Employees at risk of redundancy are entitled to a fair redundancy process underpinned by the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/contents">Employee Rights Act 1996</a>, which includes the right to meaningful consultation. According to the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) this should provide the <a href="https://www.acas.org.uk/your-rights-during-redundancy/how-your-employer-must-consult-you#:%7E:text=The%20consultation%20is%20a%20chance,to%20avoid%20or%20reduce%20redundancies">opportunity to discuss</a> the changes and why certain employees are at risk of redundancy. If employees meet specific criteria, such as being employed for a certain amount of time (usually a minimum of two years), they are also entitled to statutory redundancy payments. It is important to check specific employment contracts and the company’s policy on redundancy pay as well, however.</p>
<p>Going beyond basic rights, redundancy programmes can be implemented more smoothly when employees understand the business rationale for the situation, according to my <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/impact-consecutive-redundancy-programmes_tcm18-109943.pdf">research</a>. Business leaders must provide <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/news-views/changing-work-views/future-work/thought-pieces/sinking-ships-syndrome-redundancies">a clear understanding</a> of why redundancies are being made. Network rail, for example, has discussed its plan to make savings by <a href="https://www.networkrail.co.uk/industry-and-commercial/efficient-and-dependable-partner/">implementing technology</a> such as drones for site inspections and to drive automation of ticket sales.</p>
<p>To ensure consultations are useful and beneficial, employers should also be able to clearly demonstrate to unions and their members how they have attempted to save costs through means other than redundancies. This could involve reducing or selling unused assets or saving on procurement costs, for example. All reasonable alternatives to redundancies should be considered, such as potential redeployment of employees at risk of redundancy.</p>
<p>Once it has been decided that redundancies are to be made, however, a company should be ready and able to explain how employees were selected and why certain parts of the business were impacted. Overall, employees and unions should be given a clear plan for individual and collective consultation with anticipated timelines and effective communication channels. This will show all impacted employees that careful consideration was given to all decisions around the redundancy programme. </p>
<p>For those employees at risk of redundancy, additional services should be provided to help with the adjustment to life after redundancy. This can include support from the company itself, as well as services from external providers for up to three months after redundancy. Examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Retraining: redundancies can be avoided where possible through redeployment by retraining employees to fulfil alternative, available and suitable roles. This depends on the role requirements and reasonable ability to transfer skills.</p></li>
<li><p>Counselling: loss of income is extremely stressful, causing anxiety and financial worries. Organisations should have the necessary help in place to support employee’s mental health by providing access to free counselling and one-to-one support.</p></li>
<li><p>Transition: employers can also offer alternative support such as workshops on financial planning and guidance, or on how to start a business.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women talking, counselling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471387/original/file-20220628-15-6lhy1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471387/original/file-20220628-15-6lhy1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471387/original/file-20220628-15-6lhy1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471387/original/file-20220628-15-6lhy1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471387/original/file-20220628-15-6lhy1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471387/original/file-20220628-15-6lhy1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471387/original/file-20220628-15-6lhy1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Companies should provide additional support following redundancies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-talking-therapist-on-sofa-home-454809184">wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Supporting other employees</h2>
<p>A more compassionate redundancy process should also consider the employees that remain with the organisation. During my <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/news-views/changing-work-views/future-work/thought-pieces/sinking-ships-syndrome-redundancies">research</a>, I found that the way organisations treat the employees who lose their jobs can have a significant impact on the employees who remain in the organisation. They may feel guilty or angry about colleagues losing their jobs, as well as experiencing continued fear of job insecurity if more job losses are expected. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Strategic-Redundancy-Implementation-Re-Focus-Re-Organise-and-Re-Build/Stevens/p/book/9781032170527">Treating all employees</a> with compassion, fairness and respect during redundancies also benefits the management staff that must implement the process of redundancies. Again, widespread communication – not just with the union, but with employees themselves – helps companies conduct the process with compassion. Remaining employees should understand the future vision and mission of the organisation. Other ways to lift employee morale include investing in training and development, as well as recognising job-related progress or achievements. </p>
<p>Redundancies cannot always be avoided, but the negative impact can certainly be limited for those who lose their jobs, as well as for those who remain. And when unions work with management to ease the pain of redundancies, employees can at least leave the organisation more equipped for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeleine Stevens does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Redundancies are an unfortunate fact of life for businesses, but companies can try to make the process of job cuts less painful for workers.Madeleine Stevens, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1724802021-12-01T02:17:33Z2021-12-01T02:17:33ZLow bar for ‘genuine consultation’ set by UWA case feeds into crisis of legitimacy for Australian institutions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434366/original/file-20211129-13-rryg0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=192%2C0%2C1807%2C1195&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/99781513@N04/15554716316/in/photolist-pGvZf5">Scott Lewis/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Martin Forsey was presented with a proposal for change at his workplace that lacked a logical argument and used flawed data, he brought a case to the Fair Work Commission. The associate professor at the University of Western Australia argued that such a flawed proposal could not be used as the basis of “genuine consultation” about structural reform, as required under his enterprise agreement.</p>
<p>However, the commission has ruled the university was under no obligation to provide data, let alone accurate data, to justify its proposal. Staff had been given the opportunity to respond to the proposal, the commission said in <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/decisionssigned/html/2021fwc6285.htm">its judgment</a>. This meant UWA had clearly fulfilled its remit to provide “genuine consultation”, despite having created a proposal using <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/national/uwa-case-tests-fair-work-commission-over-question-of-staff-consultation-relying-on-surprising-data-20211102-p5953u.html">incorrect enrolment data</a> and then ignoring the vast majority of responses.</p>
<p>The term “genuine consultation” was included in the enterprise agreement. Presumably, this was done to imply that consultation will not be based on a cursory or misleading representation of the justification for change. However, while the commission assumed the university had included data that was “proven to be incorrect” because “it believed this data was persuasive”, it did not see this as an indication that the consultation could not be genuine.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1461538529423466496"}"></div></p>
<p>The problem with this ruling does not sit necessarily in its adherence to the Fair Work Act. The problem is it simply doesn’t pass the pub test of common sense. In spelling out its finding, the commission outlined the dictionary definition of data “figures, statistics, etc”, but overlooked the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?channel=trow5&client=firefox-b-d&q=genuine">dictionary definition</a> of “genuine”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>truly what something is said to be, authentic; sincere.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the real world, if your manager produced false data to justify the end of your career and called that “consultation”, would you understand that consultation to be authentic or sincere? </p>
<p>No, the manager wants you out, and out you’ll go – regardless of the consultation. That surely means the consultation can’t be authentic or sincere – or genuine. At least as far as the common person would understand it.</p>
<h2>Why does being genuine and authentic matter?</h2>
<p>In his vast body of work on communicative ethics, democracy and law, philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/habermas/">Jurgen Habermas</a> repeatedly states that real authenticity has its own, inherent power. If something is correct, genuine or true, it can analysed almost endlessly because that truth is inherent and can easily be explained. As Habermas <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Between_Facts_and_Norms/zDxRDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22processes+by+employing+forms+of+communication+that+promise+that+all+outcomes+reached+in+conformity+with+the+procedure+are+reasonable%22&pg=PA304&printsec=frontcover">writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The democratic procedure is institutionalised in discourses and bargaining processes by employing forms of communication that promise that all outcomes reached in conformity with the procedure are reasonable.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The process of questioning as a way of finding truth is how democratic systems ensure their legitimacy. According to Habermas, in a legitimate system all claims should withstand scrutiny and interrogation – because they are true! </p>
<p>Our reality is defined by what we can all agree upon by “redeeming claims to truth”, as Habermas <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=OnxoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT78&lpg=PT78&dq=%22redeeming+claims+to+truth%22&source=bl&ots=a7sSCItY65&sig=ACfU3U03ln-zZQ4XLRleHy2TNN0IDinr0A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjjsDl8rz0AhUgT2wGHQ5lAjwQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=%22redeeming%20claims%20to%20truth%22&f=false">put it</a>. So we have courts of law organised around the principle that people will be questioned and questioned again until the truth comes out. Our government is organised around the principle that if enough people can present their arguments, with enough scrutiny of those arguments, then the outcome of those debates should be legitimate.</p>
<p>Only by opening decisions up to cross-examination is it possible to present an outcome that stands up to public scrutiny.</p>
<p>The concern for our society is that Habermas always understood that these mechanisms of democratic legitimacy were embedded in a broader democratic public that would oppose illegitimacy and understand and act upon the inherent value of broad social truths. If this weren’t the case, he <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Between_Facts_and_Norms/zDxRDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22then+the+experts%E2%80%99+perception+of+problems+will+prevail+at+the+citizens%27+expense%22&pg=PA351&printsec=frontcover">states</a> in <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/between-facts-and-norms">Between Facts and Norms</a>, “then the experts’ perception of problems will prevail at the citizens’ expense”. </p>
<p>Habermas was an optimist in this respect. He believed democratic opinion and will formation were in some sense guaranteed in liberal democracy. Free speech, a free press and adversarial political parties should ensure some accountability in public statements. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434360/original/file-20211129-21-188d38k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="White-haired man leans forward and gestures with his hand" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434360/original/file-20211129-21-188d38k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434360/original/file-20211129-21-188d38k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434360/original/file-20211129-21-188d38k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434360/original/file-20211129-21-188d38k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434360/original/file-20211129-21-188d38k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434360/original/file-20211129-21-188d38k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434360/original/file-20211129-21-188d38k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jurgen Habermas may have been too optimistic in his faith in a democratic public that understands and acts upon the inherent value of broad social truths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/europapont/14358407043">Európa Pont/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Post-truth’ world challenges that optimism</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227666692_Keeping_Public_Officials_Accountable_through_Dialogue_Resolving_the_Accountability_Paradox">To be accountable</a> is to have to answer for one’s action and be responsible for the consequences. But as people with intimate experience of Australia’s federal politics and employment law are often finding out, this belief in a general demand for accountability seems mislaid. </p>
<p>Instead, politicians and employers bank on the notion that they won’t be asked to redeem their claims to truth and will not be held accountable if they lie or fail to deliver what they promised. This is what it means to be in a “post-truth” world. </p>
<p>The problem then is that people lose faith in democratic institutions that ought to be able to “redeem their claims to truth” but are not able to do so. In this way, our “democratic institutions” too often betray the trust citizens place in them. If enough citizens give up on believing in the legitimacy of our political and legal institutions, we end up in a vicious cycle of spin, deceit and manufactured ignorance. </p>
<p>Following this Fair Work Commission ruling on Forsey’s case, UWA has put sweeping changes in place. These changes have decimated UWA’s critical and social research capacity and ended the careers of many academics who would have legitimately criticised such decisions and their implications. A team of people who have made their careers out of questioning faulty logic have essentially had their life-long contribution to public knowledge curtailed by faulty logic. As a result, more faulty logic will go unquestioned. </p>
<p>At a time when Prime Minister Scott Morrison has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/24/australian-universities-to-vie-for-coalitions-200m-research-funding-boost">called on universities</a> to focus more on priorities such as the defence industry and less on critical research, Australians should not take our democracy for granted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tauel Harper is an employee at UWA Social Sciences whose reserach career is also threatened as a result of the proposal for change discussed in this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeannette Taylor is an employee at UWA Social Sciences whose research career is also threatened as a result of the proposal for change discussed in this article. </span></em></p>In democratic societies, truth matters and institutions are expected to be accountable when they stray from it.Tauel Harper, Senior Lecturer, Media and Communication, UWA, The University of Western AustraliaJeannette Taylor, Associate Professor, Political Science and International Relations, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1377042020-05-04T04:26:31Z2020-05-04T04:26:31ZCoronavirus redundancies are understandable, but there are alternatives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332201/original/file-20200504-42946-i6lpm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=988%2C184%2C2082%2C1214&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Redundancies are attractive to organisations in crisis. Although the payouts cost money upfront, they can reshape the remaining workforce to make it leaner and more fit for purpose. </p>
<p>On the other hand they can demoralise that workforce, and they are far from good for the rest of the economy.</p>
<p>One alternative, available to the employers of as many as 6.6 million Australians for the next six months, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/that-estimate-of-6-6-million-australians-on-jobkeeper-it-tells-us-how-it-can-be-improved-137237">JobKeeper</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quick-dirty-effective-there-was-no-time-to-make-jobkeeper-perfect-135195">Quick, dirty, effective: there was no time to make JobKeeper perfect</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another is being tried with apparent success by <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/group/">Domain Group</a>, the real estate listings and journalism firm majority owned by Nine Entertainment Holdings, which also owns newspapers including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.</p>
<p>Domain, and the real estate industry in general, has been hard hit by plummeting listings and plateauing home prices.</p>
<h2>Project Zipline</h2>
<p>Because it is part owned by the public and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, it has had to explain its approach to shareholders. </p>
<p>Its <a href="https://shareholders.domain.com.au/DownloadFile.axd?file=/Report/ComNews/20200427/02228319.pdf">April 26</a> announcement notes that about 45% of its cost base relates to staff and employee-related expenses.</p>
<p>“We had the option of taking the standard path of reducing hours, stand downs and redundancies, chief executive Jason Pellegrino explained on the <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/group/zipline/">Domain</a> website. </p>
<p>He chose another option: <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/group/zipline/">Project Zipline</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>employees were offered the opportunity to participate in a share rights program whereby they could receive a percentage of their salary package over the next six months in share rights, or alternatively elect to reduce working hours</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The target is a 20% reduction in staff costs, while retaining employee talent and "momentum for the long term”.</p>
<p>It’ll also help align the employees and the organisational interests.</p>
<p>Domain’s group director for employee experience, Rosalind Tregurtha says there has been a 90% take up of the options offered. </p>
<h2>Sacrifices at the top</h2>
<p>The executive leadership and board are <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/how-to-beat-the-transformation-odds">role modelling</a> by taking greater proportions of their own remuneration in share rights: 30% and 50%.</p>
<p>It has had to work quickly so the savings can start from May. </p>
<p>The work has included preparing information packs for managers and employees, briefing managers, asking employees to chose options, working with <a href="https://www.linkmarketservices.com.au/corporate/home.html">Link Market Services</a> to get offers out and processing the changes for the more than 600 employees on the payroll.</p>
<p>Zipline is a case study of an organisation working quickly with its workers to find a solution that works. </p>
<p>It mightn’t work elsewhere. Other options for businesses include</p>
<ul>
<li><p>offering greater work flexibility including shortened weeks and job sharing</p></li>
<li><p>freezing or limiting recruitment</p></li>
<li><p>restricting or banning overtime </p></li>
<li><p>increasing the scope of jobs</p></li>
<li><p>allowing employees to take accrued leave</p></li>
<li><p>directing employees to take unpaid leave under the government’s <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/industrial-action-benchbook/payments-relating-industrial-action/standing-down-employees">stand down</a> provisions </p></li>
<li><p>seeking voluntary redundancies</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Whatever option works the best, for many employers doing nothing is not an option.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-lays-bare-the-trauma-of-losing-your-job-134450">Coronavirus lays bare the trauma of losing your job</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is important to consider, as Domain did, that while demand for their services might have slowed for a time, there is every likelihood that in the not too distant future things will pick up.</p>
<p>The firms that have done all they can to retain their industry knowledge and company experience will be the best placed for revival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137704/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn Johns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Redundancies can can leave businesses ill-placed placed for revival. The real estate listings firm Domain is trying something more promising.Robyn Johns, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1075202018-12-04T18:51:53Z2018-12-04T18:51:53ZNew research reveals how Australian journalists are faring four years after redundancy<p>As many as <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Media%2C%20Entertainment%20and%20Arts%20Alliance%20%28April%202018%29.pdf">3,000 journalism jobs are estimated to have been lost</a> in Australia this decade, the vast majority of which have come from newspaper newsrooms. The consequences for the information needs of the public are profound. But what of the lives and careers of those who left what were typically very stable careers?</p>
<p>Over the past four years, our New Beats research team has conducted annual surveys of a cohort of more than 200 journalists who experienced redundancy. As we <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-after-redundancy-what-happens-next-for-journalists-when-they-leave-newsrooms-77154">have previously reported</a>, many found the redundancy process and its immediate aftermath traumatic. But findings from our <a href="http://www.newbeatsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/New_Beats_Report.pdf">newly released report</a>, which focuses on the final survey in 2017, suggest that journalists have shown considerable resilience in rebuilding their careers and, in some cases, their lives. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/life-after-redundancy-what-happens-next-for-journalists-when-they-leave-newsrooms-77154">Life after redundancy: what happens next for journalists when they leave newsrooms</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>That said, the most striking finding from our 2017 survey is how unstable employment patterns have been since leaving the newsroom. Prior to redundancy, our 2014 cohort of 225 participants came mostly from newspapers. Just over 80% had worked at either Fairfax Media or News Limited (now News Corp Australia). </p>
<p>More than half were over the age of 50 at the time of the 2014 survey and they had spent an average of a quarter of a century in the companies they have left behind.
But since their initial redundancy only around 10% said they had been employed in the one organisation or role. More than two-thirds of respondents told us they had had multiple jobs, either simultaneously or sequentially. The following response exemplifies the trend:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Attempted to set up my own media business based on writing and editing. Couldn’t sustain a full-time living from it so have taken a number of casual and part-time jobs and my own business as a sole trader supplements that. Mainly work for a public relations company that hires out my services. Have been back in newspapers for two years, two days a week, as a subeditor.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With relative consistency across all four surveys, participants bunched into three main categories of post-redundancy employment: working in journalism (including freelancing), working in a mix of journalism and other work, and working outside of journalism. In the 2017 survey, these categories were roughly equal: 27.5% were in journalism, 25.0% did some journalism and 32.5% had left journalism. Across all surveys, an average of only 10% were working in full-time journalism roles.</p>
<p>The one-quarter who mix journalism with other work are an indication that post-redundancy working life hasn’t been simply a matter of staying or leaving. Yet such vocational shape-shifting doesn’t suit everyone who has come out of what were once secure and – for the most part – better-paid careers. So one surprise finding is that 73% of those surveyed in 2017 who were working in any capacity said they were satisfied with their current working arrangements, with 16% neutral and just 11% dissatisfied. </p>
<p>How might this be explained? Certainly, post-redundancy working life has been challenging for many. Perceptions of ageism and sexism, and the fact that flexible work often means precarious income, are common concerns. And as we found in responses to earlier surveys, professional identities were challenged. As one respondent put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had always been proud to say that I was a journalist and I loved my job, but suddenly, at age 55, I was out on my ear and having to reinvent myself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But the skills and decades of professionalism that journalists took with them out of the newsrooms has meant that the challenges of precarity have been counterbalanced by new opportunities, even in unrelated forms of work. Very few respondents told us they can’t find work at all. </p>
<p>In our 2017 survey, nearly three-quarters of those who’d moved into different kinds of work said their journalism skills remained useful. This response illustrates the point: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My new career is totally different to journalism, so it doesn’t really compare. I don’t feel connected to my former industry anymore, however, I have found the communications skills of journalism are an advantage in my new industry when establishing client relationships.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A related finding is that around two-thirds of respondents say that, on balance, their personal sense of well-being is better now than prior to leaving their jobs. As one pointed out in our 2014 survey:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I work a lot from home, I make my own rules and decisions, and I don’t have a third of the stress I had in my last job.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In some cases it’s a re-evaluation of work-life balance that has informed subjective senses of well-being. To quote one response: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Overall, despite the hell I’ve been through, life is better … I don’t feel as secure with work and I don’t have the same earning potential that I had while working in journalism, but one of the lessons I learnt was the old cliche that money doesn’t buy happiness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For others, navigating precarious work remains challenging:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I feel like I am better able to cope with change – if the rug was pulled out from underneath me and I was forced to switch gears again, I guess I know that I would be able to deal with it. But it’s tiring not really having any real job security sometimes. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, life after redundancy continues to involve adapting to changing work opportunities and how work connects to other life priorities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-beats-where-do-redundant-journalists-go-20710">New beats: where do redundant journalists go?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In a significant extension of this research, colleagues in other countries have adapted our New Beats approach to survey laid-off reporters internationally. While some of this research is still emergent, it appears that much of what we’ve chronicled in the Australian context has been experienced across the US, Canada, Finland, The Netherlands, Indonesia, <a href="http://theconversation.com/why-the-demise-of-specialist-reporters-is-a-loss-for-any-democracy-107196">South Africa</a> and elsewhere. The similarities highlight how the digital transformations we’ve seen in Australian journalism have been disruptive around the world and have had profound effects on the lives of those concerned.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lawrie Zion receives funding from the Australian Research Council. The ABC, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance and the National Library of Australia are partner organisations of this project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ricketson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is the representative on the Press Council of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, a partner organisation of this project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merryn Sherwood receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny O'Donnell receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Marjoribanks receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monika Winarnita does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since leaving secure jobs in newsrooms, employment has been unstable for many former journalists – but job satisfaction has been surprisingly high.Lawrie Zion, Professor of Journalism, La Trobe UniversityAndrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneMatthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin UniversityMerryn Sherwood, Lecturer in Sports Journalism, La Trobe UniversityMonika Winarnita, Research Associate Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe UniversityPenny O'Donnell, Senior Lecturer in International Media and Journalism, University of SydneyTimothy Marjoribanks, Associate Dean (Research and Development), Faculty of Business and Law, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/771542017-05-09T03:57:27Z2017-05-09T03:57:27ZLife after redundancy: what happens next for journalists when they leave newsrooms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168297/original/file-20170508-19313-1oivu8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With every round of redundancies, significant questions arise around the long-term viability of mainstream news media in Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/David Moir</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The planned <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/fairfax-media-axe-125-editorial-jobs-part-30m-restructure-442106">125 editorial job redundancies</a> at Fairfax Media is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-government-without-newspapers-why-everyone-should-care-about-the-cuts-at-fairfax-77163">huge blow</a> to those working within some of Australia’s most established newsrooms, to their readers, and to the capacity of established media to operate as a site of public engagement. </p>
<p>The proposed cuts prompted a seven-day strike by staff at the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and the Australian Financial Review, which between them face a reduction of 25% of all editorial staff. The announcement of these redundancies is just the latest in a protracted series of job cuts in Australian newsrooms since 2012.</p>
<p>But what comes next for those who will be leaving?</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://www.newbeatsblog.com">New Beats</a> research team has been following the experiences of 225 news workers whose positions were made redundant between 2012 and 2014 to see how their post-redundancy careers evolved. Findings from our annual surveys of this group point to some common concerns – including how redundancy affects health, income, and the gaining of new skills.</p>
<h2>What we’ve discovered</h2>
<p>Redundancy is frequently a traumatic experience, even for those who go voluntarily. As one journo told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was voluntary, but in the same way as getting on a lifeboat from the Titanic also would be voluntary. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some reported loss of professional identity and self-esteem, while others said their health had suffered.</p>
<p>A lack of transparency and poor management of the process has added to the stress. There were horror tales of journalists who had spent decades in a newsroom being told to pack up and leave immediately.</p>
<p>Union intervention and advocacy has secured fairer outcomes and decent payouts. But there is lingering anger that redundancy has become the least-worst option: that journalistic expertise and experience seem to have become disposable assets in converging digital newsrooms. </p>
<p>While the negative impacts cannot be downplayed, many of the participants in our research have rebuilt their careers and lives since redundancy. When we asked about wellbeing in 2014, the responses were downcast. But by 2015, at least some were more upbeat – characterised by responses like this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Redundancy was a hard time, but things have looked on the up since then. My job is much more secure than it ever was in a newspaper.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2016, those responses were mostly positive again. As one respondent put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I feel better and work is more satisfying but I am financially worse off and less stable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The “happier but poorer” refrain is a common theme. Findings from <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22041451.2016.1185924">our 2014 survey</a>, when some participants had left their jobs in the previous 12 months, revealed a substantial drop in income – even for those who were working full time. And reduced earnings were more pronounced for those in full-time journalism roles than for those who had moved into other professions. </p>
<p>However, subsequent survey responses have noted some income and employment recovery. </p>
<p>In the past two surveys, a majority of respondents said they had earned more in the current year than in the previous one. Of the 123 who completed the survey conducted in late 2016, only one said they were looking for work. Eleven were retired and two were “taking a break” – leaving 109 in work.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the extent of this recovery should not be overstated. Many have moved from full-time work to “precarious” or insecure work, including contract and freelance roles, although 70% of respondents working in this way said that they did this by choice for flexibility.</p>
<p>Most still work in journalism, or a combination of journalism and other work.</p>
<p>While a smaller proportion of our cohort, some have found employment in non-journalism roles that draw heavily on their journalism skills. These include media advisers for politicians, public relations and other communication roles, and as university lecturers.</p>
<p>Of these, many commented that their skill set – in particular critical thinking, research and high-level communication skills – were valued outside journalism. Several respondents now in PR noted that their new roles, long stigmatised by many journalists as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/oct/16/university-pr-stable-job-career">“the dark side”</a>, had provided both solid income and job satisfaction. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309965806_Once_a_Journalist_Always_a_Journalist?ev=prf_high">One commented</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My career change has rounded out my professional identity and added another string to my bow. There may be a perception among journalists that I’ve “sold out” and given away my credibility. That was my perception of PR before I joined the profession! </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What the job cuts mean</h2>
<p>The total number of jobs lost through redundancy from the Australian journalism workforce is difficult to calculate. Many positions disappear without announcement – especially from smaller news outlets. </p>
<p>Two years ago it was estimated that 2,500 roles had disappeared during or since 2012. If so, it now seems that 3,000 is a conservative estimate, given recent deep cuts in the staffing of regional newspapers, and last month’s announcements of a <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/news-corp-cut-jobs-looks-streamline-editorial-operations-438319">restructure at News Corp</a>. </p>
<p>Our own attempt to keep track of redundancies on <a href="http://www.newbeatsblog.com/redundancy-timeline/">the timeline shown below</a> is regularly updated. Please advise us of details of any job losses we have missed. </p>
<hr>
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<hr>
<p>Whatever the actual figure, the extent of the latest cuts raises questions about whether those who leave, voluntarily or not, will have comparable post-redundancy experiences.</p>
<p>While freelancing has been an important part of work portfolios in recent years, the slashing of casual and contributor budgets at Fairfax Media points to a reduction in even this form of precarious work. This is significant because some of our respondents had already noted the low rates they were offered for work.</p>
<p>And with every round of redundancies, important questions arise around the long-term viability of mainstream news media in Australia. Those who remain in newsrooms still have to produce news with a much-reduced workforce, in a context in which management is using ongoing redundancies to reduce costs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lawrie Zion receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the New Beats project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd receives funding from Australian research Council for the New Beats project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ricketson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the New Beats project. He is affiliated with the Press Council of Australia, as the representative of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merryn Sherwood receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the New Beats project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny O'Donnell receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the New Beats project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Marjoribanks receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the New Beats project </span></em></p>There is lingering anger among journalists made redundant that expertise and experience seem to have become disposable assets in newsrooms.Lawrie Zion, Professor of Journalism, La Trobe UniversityAndrew Dodd, Program Director - Journalism, Swinburne University of TechnologyMatthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin UniversityMerryn Sherwood, Lecturer in Sports Journalism, La Trobe UniversityPenny O'Donnell, Senior Lecturer in International Media and Journalism, University of SydneyTim Marjoribanks, Associate Head, La Trobe Business School; Professor of Management (Organisation Studies), La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/681432016-11-04T02:07:06Z2016-11-04T02:07:06ZHazelwood’s closure calls for a rethink on Latrobe Valley solutions<p>The announcement of the closure of Hazelwood power station in 2017 adds further complexity to an uncertain future facing the Latrobe Valley community. </p>
<p>Owners Engie and Mitsui <a href="http://www.gdfsuezau.com/media/UploadedDocuments/News/Hazelwood%20Clousure/Hazelwood%20closure%20-%20Media%20release.pdf">said of the 750 employees</a> at the power station, 250 will remain between 2017 and 2023 to manage the site rehabilitation, while the remaining workers will receive a redundancy package. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/labor-government-to-support-hazelwood-workers/">The state government has pledged a package</a> of A$22 million for “personalised support” for workers which includes TAFE training, financial counselling and other forms of support and a further A$20 million to set up a Latrobe Valley Authority to lead the economic transition. In addition to this <a href="http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/economic-growth-zone-to-boost-latrobe-valley-business/">A$224 million will go towards</a> the establishment of a “economic growth zone”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://ministers.employment.gov.au/cash/government-support-hazelwood-workers">federal government is offering</a> A$43 million including A$3 million for active assistance, retraining, and other forms of financial services. </p>
<p>Adversity is not new to this Victorian region. Headed by the towns of Moe, Morwell and Traralgon, this one-time thriving energy generating region has experienced continual power job losses since the 1980s. And despite continued government support, the Latrobe Valley’s economic decline and higher than state average unemployment is yet to be halted.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-five-pillar-economy-mining-40701">Fluctuating demand</a> for mining exports and reductions in manufacturing output across Australia require regional areas like the Latrobe Valley to consider their options. A <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264253476-en">2016 OECD report</a> states that Australia has a relatively strong capacity to provide new jobs for redundant workers, citing examples of 80% re-employment within two years.</p>
<p>But does this experience hold for regional locations? Looking back, <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=378f4515-63e8-4af4-9e4a-910de9a3fbdf">a 2001 Monash University report</a> showed that structural changes to the power industry saw the Latrobe Valley suffer from a loss of almost 10% of its residents, sustained withdrawals from the labour force and unfavourable conditions for local businesses.</p>
<p>Recovery has been slow. Within the Latrobe Valley community, the challenges of reversing economic decline have been exacerbated by recent events such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-hazelwood-mine-disaster-could-easily-have-been-avoided-31335">Hazelwood Mine fire</a> and the impact of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/milk-price-cuts-reflect-the-reality-of-sweeping-changes-in-global-dairy-market-59251">milk price downturn</a> on the dairy industry. The power station closure had been <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/energy/french-energy-giant-engie-mulls-closure-of-hazelwood-power-station-20160525-gp426a">foreshadowed for some time</a> and further job losses from the power industry will add to community concerns. </p>
<p>There is an emerging gulf in living standards between country and city-based residents. For example, according to a <a href="http://www.dtpli.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/223052/Change_and_disadvantage_in_regional_Victoria_overview.pdf">2011 state government report</a>, regional Victoria is relatively disadvantaged in several ways including lower educational participation and workforce skill levels, when compared to metropolitan Melbourne. In this same report, the Latrobe Valley towns of Moe and Morwell are named among the most disadvantaged localities in regional Victoria. </p>
<p>Those working in the power industry represent <a href="http://www.committeeforgippsland.com.au/docs/7108%20Committee%20for%20Gippsland%20-%202016%20Booklet.pdf">nearly 10% of the Latrobe Valley workforce</a> and the announced job losses may add to an unemployment rate, <a href="http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/EmploymentData/EasternVictoria/LatrobeValley">currently standing at 7%</a>. </p>
<p>The immediate focus must be on the welfare for affected employees and their families. In the longer term, this event could be the trigger for new opportunities to revitalise the Latrobe Valley’s economic outlook. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.communityeconomies.org/site/assets/media/old%20website%20pdfs/Papers/On%20community%20economies/Alternative%20Pathways%20to%20Community%20and%20Economic%20Development.pdf">Alternative pathways for economic and community development</a> have been on the agenda for the Latrobe Valley at least since privatisation of the power industry in the 1990s. These include a future economic strategy that supports a more diversified economy. </p>
<p>Lack of real community consultation and engagement has meant that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/29455676_Alternative_Pathways_to_Community_and_Economic_Development_The_Latrobe_Valley_Community_Partnering_Project">workers perhaps haven’t felt empowered</a> to take up other opportunities. </p>
<p>There are some alternatives that could be taken advantage of, such as new service and manufacturing industries and others that build on the Latrobe Valley’s natural advantages in agriculture and scenic locations. Ideally, these initiatives require focused retraining or other forms of support for displaced workers. But such short-term measures are, of course, obvious. </p>
<p>With the closure of the power station, there will ongoing work for some time as the site moves from a productive mine to rehabilitated site. However there are significant issues that have to be considered first, such as the future use and stabilisation of the site prior to undertaking major works. </p>
<p>Whatever the future of the Hazelwood site, it’s critical that this is determined in consultation with the community to provide access to facilities and services of benefit to local residents. Importantly, as rehabilitation of the site will be a long-term process, it will be necessary that the community contributes both to the vision and the progress toward this for it to succeed.</p>
<p>State and federal governments may look also to other communities that have experienced industrial plant closures internationally to inform their plans and actions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Duffy has participated in research projects funded by Regional Development Victoria, VicHealth and the Department of Health and Human Services.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damian Morgan has participated in research projects funded by Regional Development Victoria, Regional Development Australia and the Environment Protection Authority Victoria.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Reeves does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Past attempts to help Latrobe Valley workers weather economic changes haven’t made a difference, so the closure of Hazelwood presents a challenge.Michelle Duffy, Senior Lecturer, Humanities and Social Sciences, Federation University AustraliaDamian Morgan, Senior Lecturer in Management, Federation University AustraliaJessica Reeves, Senior Lecturer, Environmental Science, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/598552016-06-09T12:53:08Z2016-06-09T12:53:08ZHow to fire someone … kindly<p>Whether you can fire someone compassionately is an interesting question with the immediate answer normally being: surely not. But the truth is more nuanced, depending on the circumstances and how public and drawn-out the “threat” of being sacked has been. Also, of importance is the country it occurs in – in the US, for example, <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/at-will-employment-overview.aspx">“employment at will”</a> essentially means that there can be “termination at will”, too. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36356584">Louis van Gaal’s recent sacking</a> as manager of Manchester United hardly looked like a textbook case of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/may/22/louis-van-gaal-manchester-united-players-near-mutiny">“compassionate firing”</a>. However, we can use it as an example to explain whether you can ever let go of someone kindly. What techniques are employed? Is it best to do it at the start of the week or the day, for example, or the end? What should be said? Who should be there? And what happens when it all goes horribly wrong?</p>
<p>We need to set out some key points and assumptions. First, there is the issue of the lexicon used here. The word “firing” is inflammatory and subjective, with its implications of suddenness and some sort of wrongdoing. The words “termination” and “dismissal” are only a little less so, while <a href="https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights/overview">“redundancy”</a> has far more neutral connotations, but also implies that the position itself has become surplus to requirements rather than ripe for the filling by someone else. Then there is the issue of whether the “firing” has been on the cards for a while or whether it comes straight out of the blue. Third, we will assume that the dismissal is legal or, if not, well compensated.</p>
<h2>The personal touch</h2>
<p>Needless to say, the message is best not delivered by impersonal email, Facebook post, text message or telephone (or, as happened in the past, fax). Nor should the employee hear about it first via the press, as appears to have happened with Louis van Gaal, or another third party. </p>
<p>The organisation should also avoid abrogating responsibility by outsourcing it, as aptly demonstrated in films such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/">Office Space</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/">Up In The Air</a>. In the latter, George Clooney plays a hired “corporate downsizer” who flies between organisations to conduct “termination” meetings, and whose HR consultancy wants to cut costs by switching to lay-offs by video conference. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rTL1FmvVCuA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Rather, the decision needs the personal touch, with the relevant line manager involved and should be delivered with respect and thoughtfulness in a neutral place allowing each side to leave with dignity.</p>
<p>It should also follow steps in a procedure that is not only fair, reasonable and consistent, but is clearly seen to be so and is known. Guidelines from organisations such as <a href="http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1797">Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service)</a> and the <a href="http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/dismissal.aspx">Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development</a> stress such procedures. </p>
<p>Furthermore, planning can help protect as best as possible the organisation. This involves compiling a standard list for the meeting that covers what will happen and when in terms of: security of IT, facilities (access to email, keys and so on) and property (phones, laptops, credit cards), as well as remuneration, benefits and any agreements covering such things as confidentiality and non-competition. As we will see below, it is never a great idea to allow continuing access to company email, let alone IT networks and files.</p>
<p>When it comes to the best time for letting someone go, this depends if the person already knows the “sacking” is likely to come and the likelihood of feelings of resentment. There is no consensus on this. For some, the end of the day at the end of the working week would seem to be best for all concerned, making the departure less dramatic, but others suggest the start of the week to give the employee the opportunity to start their job search straight away.</p>
<p>In terms of what should be said, clearly it depends on the reasons for the dismissal. The meeting is best kept short as it is to inform, not discuss. Remaining polite and civil is cost-free, as is giving wholesome thanks for contributions, service and past achievements. Remember, the world of work can be an incredibly small place and you just never know when – or under what conditions – you might meet again.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125528/original/image-20160607-15045-1mao6v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125528/original/image-20160607-15045-1mao6v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125528/original/image-20160607-15045-1mao6v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125528/original/image-20160607-15045-1mao6v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125528/original/image-20160607-15045-1mao6v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125528/original/image-20160607-15045-1mao6v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125528/original/image-20160607-15045-1mao6v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A fine line in firing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www/shutterstock.com">shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Brutal firings are bad PR for firms, too. One can think of <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/neutron-jack-welch-ceo-general-electric-ge.asp">“Neutron Jack” Welch</a> at GEC. His <a href="http://qz.com/428813/ge-performance-review-strategy-shift/">“rank and yank”</a> system of sacking staff, whereby those in the bottom 10% of annual performance curve were fired, was always going to put staff under tremendous pressure. Other examples of poor practice that produce poor PR include Yahoo’s sacking of chief executive Carol Bartz <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/8746011/Yahoo-chief-Carol-Bartz-fired-over-the-phone.html">over the telephone</a> in 2011 and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong firing a creative director <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-audio-listen-to-aol-ceo-tim-armstrong-fire-a-patch-employee-snapping-a-photo-2013-8?IR=T">live during a conference call</a> to over 1,000 employees in 2013 – this went viral.</p>
<p>Of course, in case we forget, the entire workforce can also be impacted by firings, potentially damaging commitment, motivation and the psychological contract.</p>
<h2>Private, not public</h2>
<p>But who should be there at the meeting? It should never be done publicly, but there’s a fine balance between privacy and the need to offer adequate support. It might be suggested that a colleague or friend be with the person concerned, but then it may seem more like a disciplinary meeting. To protect both sides, the person delivering the news should also have someone there, to take verbatim notes and perhaps even to get the person to sign a document setting out what has happened, what happens next and that the procedure was conducted in a fair and reasonable way.</p>
<p>Finally, what might happen when it all goes horribly wrong? There are plenty of war stories of revenge wreaked by disgruntled former employees. Bartz, for example, immediately <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/09/06/carol-bartz-fired/#XiDqaG8.mGqs">sent an email</a> to all of Yahoo’s staff, revealing that she had been sacked over the phone – hardly good for morale. But client lists, company reports and records, expense accounts and IT systems could also all be at risk.</p>
<p>It can get pretty destructive. One sacked Russian airport worker, for example, was so disgruntled that he destroyed an <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/furious-airport-worker-smashes-up-7834888">aeroplane with a digger</a>. And at the far extreme, things can get really scary. In August 2015, for example, a sacked American reporter <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1543296/tv-journalists-killed-on-air-were-shot-in-head">killed two former co-workers live on television</a>.</p>
<p>All in all, there is a need to make dismissals as dignified and “friendly” as possible as there are risks and costs involved. We certainly should not in any way act like Alan Sugar or Donald Trump in The Apprentice. A straight “You’re fired!” may well cause more trouble than it’s worth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59855/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Rowley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A simple ‘you’re fired!’ just won’t cut it.Chris Rowley, Professor of Human Resource Management, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/600572016-05-29T20:58:43Z2016-05-29T20:58:43ZDiscrimination law fails pregnant women who lose their jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124243/original/image-20160527-22083-1jnppec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows that employers tend to win cases where pregnant women claim unfair dismissal. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite laws protecting their rights to work, research shows pregnant women are still being discriminated against with court decisions often being unfavourable to the few bringing legal claims. Legal change is needed if as a society we are to share the costs and consequences of care rather than leaving them to mothers.</p>
<p>Currently at federal level, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_act/fwa2009114/">the Fair Work Act</a> and the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sda1984209/">Sex Discrimination Act</a> outlaw pregnancy and related discrimination. This is where a worker is treated unfavourably due to pregnancy, leave taking or refusal to create a flexible working arrangement on return to work for example refusal of part-time work.</p>
<p>Essentially the law forbids discrimination if the employer’s motives for their actions were in part because the worker was pregnant. Though the Fair Work Act and the Sex Discrimination Act approach this in very different ways, court decisions suggest that effectively a pregnant employee needs to disprove the employer’s stated reason for their unfavourable treatment. This is very difficult for employees especially in redundancy situations where judges are reluctant to deny an employer’s right to manage their business as they see fit.</p>
<p>Our research, published in the Australian Journal of Labour Law, looked at the 10 pregnancy-related discrimination court decisions from 2010 until 2014 brought by employees who had been dismissed. We found that not a single employee had won their case where the employer claimed redundancy had been the reason for the dismissal. </p>
<p>For example, in two cases (involving a facilities manager and a marketing manager with the same employer) the court conceded that just by their absence from work in a restructure context, they risked redundancy. The court did not consider, in either case, that this had led to discrimination.</p>
<p>The court believed the redundancies were genuine as hypothetically anyone absent for whatever reason would have been treated the same. There was no recognition of how less favourably employers may view a maternity absence, to that say of an extended holiday, with the likely flow on consequences of a returning new mother seeking part-time work. </p>
<p>Another two cases had similar results. One women was about to go on leave and one return from it when cost-cutting occurred in the international company which employed them. Their job duties were redistributed or abolished. The court accepted employer evidence that parental leave did not figure in the decisions to make them redundant.</p>
<p>Another case featured a firm facing financial problems, where the pregnant employee, a merchandise manager, was made redundant after she made her pregnancy known. Evidence was given from the person who used to work in the employee’s role that she had successfully returned part-time from maternity leave to the firm. </p>
<p>The court didn’t comment that this was to a lesser status casual position, so as to enable her to work part-time. Yet this is arguably relevant contextual material about workplace attitudes to maternity.</p>
<p>Pregnancy or parental leave dismissals need always to be viewed in that context given the difficulties women face navigating this. <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/ER-07-2014-0085">Research</a> by our colleagues Marian Baird and Rae Cooper highlights the difficulties faced by “lucky” women who obtain part-time or flexible work after having a baby. A <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/03_2015/finalphase4_report_6_march_2015_0.pdf">paid parental leave evaluation</a>found that though 77% went back to work after childbirth – only 33% returned to the same job pay and conditions.</p>
<p>Pregnant women and new mothers are understandably reluctant to pursue their rights: <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/SWP_Report_2014.pdf">a 2014 survey</a> by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) found that nearly half experienced some form of unfavourable treatment during pregnancy, maternity leave or on return, yet only 4% reported this to a government body.</p>
<p>The profound reluctance the courts display in questioning employer discretion leaves a yawning gap in protection of pregnant women and new mothers. This was also shown in the AHRC survey which showed 18% of new mothers reported being made redundant, restructured, dismissed or that their contract was not renewed while pregnant, on leave or on arrival back at work. This suggests discrimination on an industrial scale, a finding <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/managing-pregnancy-and-maternity-workplace/pregnancy-and-maternity-discrimination-report">recently replicated in the UK</a>.</p>
<p>Currently discrimination protections for pregnant women and new mothers depend on what the court finds to be the employer motives for dismissal suggesting these protections needs rethinking. Explicit rights in the Fair Work Act such as the right to return to one’s job after parental leave (though problematic as it stands) provide a model for protections. </p>
<p>Society needs to agree the jobs of pregnant women are worth protecting, that they have a valid role at the workplace. And that the costs of replacing someone absent from work need to be shared by society as a whole – not just by women nor principally by employers of women in what is a very sex segregated labour market.</p>
<p>Government action to facilitate this is needed. We would suggest encouraging the retention of pregnant employees and employees returning to work after parental leave by a direct payment or tax incentive. This is somewhat similar to a UK arrangement for small employers – they receive 104% of the statutory maternity pay they give.</p>
<p>Stronger protection under law is needed for women who are pregnant and on return from work, such as protections provided in some European laws. For example, prohibit dismissal of pregnant employees or new mothers (unless an employer goes bust) till one year after return to work.</p>
<p>There could also be more resources for the Fair Work Ombudsman to enforce the law. The ombudsman has pursued a few pregnancy discrimination cases for women complainants, all successful. She has also, in other cases, obtained <a href="https://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/our-role/enforcing-the-legislation/enforceable-undertakings">“enforceable undertakings”</a> providing remedies to assist future pregnant employees in the workplaces concerned.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Heron is a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby, the Work+Family Policy Roundtable, and of the Greens</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Charlesworth receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is also co-convenor of the Work+Family Policy Roundtable. </span></em></p>Research shows pregnant women are still being discriminated against in unfair dismissal cases, when employers say they are redundant.Alexandra Heron, Research Associate, Women & Work Research Group, Business School, University of SydneySara Charlesworth, Professor, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/535812016-01-22T16:55:46Z2016-01-22T16:55:46ZJob cuts save money but can hurt business in the long-run<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109003/original/image-20160122-430-q8ssy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Barclays is cutting 1,200 jobs worldwide.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-595720p1.html">pcruciatti / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Barclays, Pearson and Virgin Media have all announced <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/21/pearson-barclays-and-virgin-media-announce-job-cuts">significant job cuts</a> as part of a growing pressure to cut costs, adding up to more than 6,000 job cuts in total. Firms are increasingly turning to cost-reduction strategies as a coping mechanism for competitive and difficult economic conditions. But while these strategies help to reduce costs in the short-term, these cuts can have much bigger, and fundamentally important implications for the identity of the firm and their long-term competitiveness. </p>
<p>Take education giant Pearson. The publishing company is to cut 4,000 jobs globally, or one in ten of its staff, as a result of the prolonged downturn, though largely across its US markets. Its chief executive, John Fallon, defended the decision by arguing that cost savings <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b2b8abd6-c010-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2.html#a">of £350m would be achieved by 2017</a> – something greatly needed within a firm with one of the highest administrative costs <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/12111830/Pearson-issues-profit-warning-and-announces-4000-job-cuts.html">of any FTSE 100 company</a>. Pressure from shareholders has trapped the firm in an economic cycle, which has proven difficult to get out of. </p>
<p>No doubt this kind of cost-reduction strategy stimulates a short-term solution and appeases shareholder demands – evidenced by share prices rising 15% <a href="https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/pearson-chief-rails-naive-ignorant-081237591.html">on announcement of the news</a>. But there’s evidence to show it actually creates longer-term issues for companies, continuing to trap them in a downward cycle.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109006/original/image-20160122-447-1slq4ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109006/original/image-20160122-447-1slq4ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109006/original/image-20160122-447-1slq4ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109006/original/image-20160122-447-1slq4ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109006/original/image-20160122-447-1slq4ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109006/original/image-20160122-447-1slq4ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109006/original/image-20160122-447-1slq4ld.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Firing people doesn’t just do emotional damage, it can hurt potential profits too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the last decade, <a href="http://mlq.sagepub.com/content/43/1/53.full.pdf+html">numerous studies</a> have demonstrated the precedent that cutting costs by cutting people can have longer-term, damaging effects on company performance, in addition to the negative consequences for employees and their families. Indeed, despite warnings, major businesses still decide to use mass layoffs as an effective weapon to deal with difficult and competitive conditions. </p>
<h2>Fostering innovation</h2>
<p>In the heat of any competitive crisis, companies must focus on financial viability, but they must do this while considering their strategic needs. Short-term actions have longer-term consequences. As such it is possible to argue that quick headcount reductions come at a price. Notably, the price of missed opportunity. </p>
<p>For example, Pearson have said that they want to focus more <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1626996/education-publisher-pearson-cuts-4000-jobs">on new product development</a>, but may have inadvertently reduced the long-term innovative and strategic capabilities of the firm. If you take away people within the firm who might have the power to influence business practice, you could negatively influence the firm’s long term capabilities. You want to be able to enable creative problem solving and thinking through individuals within the firm, not stifle innovation by creating a culture where employees are not fostered.</p>
<p>To drive long-term competitive advantage and innovation, there is a need to foster capabilities within a company. Ways of doing this could be through platforms to encourage greater employee interaction or through a better understanding of the personalities in your workforce. </p>
<p>For example, a study I <a href="http://www.hud.ac.uk/ourstaff/profile/index.php?staffid=1473">recently conducted</a> measured the personality profiles of 233 senior leaders from across finance and high-tech industries, and linked this to the way in which strategic capabilities were built within their firms. It showed that conscientiousness was strongly linked to a leader’s ability to sense opportunities within a company – something <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.640/pdf">we know</a> drives a better competitive position. So if you take away people that naturally look for opportunities and shift away from the status quo, you can also stifle innovation. Having already restructured once <a href="https://next.ft.com/content/b2b8abd6-c010-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2">under its current chief executive</a> – cutting 5,000 jobs in 2013 and 2014 – perhaps it is time Pearson tried a new strategy?</p>
<p>Strategic vision requires a commitment to people and fostering talent within a firm, which in turn helps develop the strength of company culture. While some firms may always be able to match another’s financial and physical resources, replicating the wealth of their employees and culture is rather more troublesome. Firms such as Pearson, Barclays and Virgin Media may therefore need to ask themselves whether workforce-related cuts are the best course of action.</p>
<p>Intelligent and effective cost cutting should not jump to mass layoffs. The answer to long-term advantage may lie in an understanding of people and viewing employees as the solution and not the problem when responding to a tough market.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shelley Harrington receives funding from The Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>Barclays, Pearson, Virgin Media and others have announced big layoffs following poor results – research shows it could be bad strategy in the long-run.Shelley Harrington, Lecturer in Organisation Studies , University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/534782016-01-21T14:37:05Z2016-01-21T14:37:05ZSaving Britain’s steel industry: what can be done, and is it even worth it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108849/original/image-20160121-9732-1o7a3sw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin_trahar/2302540658/sizes/l">bloodymonday/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The announcement of more than <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35337896">1,000 job losses</a> at Tata Steel – the vast majority at the Port Talbot plant in South Wales – has understandably provoked <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K-ZOrn0R1k">heated debate</a>. Yet this is just the latest incident in the industry’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34581945">spiral of decline</a>, which has recently seen redundancy plans being made at other companies including SSI, Caparo and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3407527/Crisis-hit-steel-industry-dealt-fresh-blow-news-job-losses.html">Sheffield Forgemasters</a>. The future of the industry in Wales, and other regions across the UK, is in jeopardy. And there has been <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34392379">no shortage of suggestions</a> as to what could, or should, be done. </p>
<p>There are three big questions here. First, whether the government should intervene in some way now to support the industry. Second, what should be done to help those workers facing redundancy. And finally, what policy options might be available in the longer term to diversify the economy away from steel.</p>
<p>The causes of the crisis in the steel industry <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35351954">are well-documented</a>. Energy costs are on the rise, and the price of steel has <a href="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/commodity/steel">halved in the last year</a>, amid <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/commodities/11878679/Chinas-dumped-steel-leaves-UK-industry-facing-fight-for-survival.html">accusations that</a> low-cost steel from Chinese producers is being dumped on the European market. But for South Wales, this is merely the latest episode of a protracted and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24087873_Visionary_Precautionary_and_Constrained_%27Varieties_of_Devolution%27_in_the_Economic_Governance_of_the_Devolved_UK_Territories">sometimes painful transition</a> away from an economy based on heavy industries, towards one based on services and knowledge. This raises the question: should the government intervene?</p>
<h2>An invaluable industry</h2>
<p>The role that Tata plays in the Welsh economy should not be understated. <a href="http://business.cardiff.ac.uk/sites/default/files/wer/23.pdf">Research by the Welsh Economy Research Unit</a> suggests that it accounts for fully 3% of Welsh Gross Value Added (or GVA – <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/specific/economy/national-accounts/gva/relationship-gva-and-gdp/gross-value-added-and-gross-domestic-product.html">a key measure of the value of goods and services produced</a>), making it “the most economically important private sector company in Wales”. </p>
<p>What’s more, every job in Tata (3,500 in Port Talbot alone, even accounting for the announced losses) supports an additional 1.22 jobs in Wales through multiplier effects – that is, through suppliers, subcontractors and businesses outside the steel industry which benefit from the recycling of its wages.</p>
<p>These figures give a sense of just how difficult it will be to replicate the effects of the steel industry. But they also offer an indication of how the resources available for economic development should be deployed. Some <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/news-opinion/the-welsh-government-should-step-10750706">prominent commentators in Wales argue that</a> the Welsh government should support the ongoing existence of the steel industry, by entering into a joint venture with Tata. </p>
<p>Their idea is for the government to take a majority stake in Tata’s Welsh holdings, while the company continues to operate the plants. This approach could cover losses and fund restructuring over the medium term – or at least while the present crisis in the wider industry is most acute. Those who advocate this position are understandably keen to differentiate such an approach from the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7250252.stm">bailouts of ailing industries</a>, stereotypical of the 1960s and 70s. But it’s not without precedent – Cardiff Airport, albeit a much smaller investment, is currently under Welsh government <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21952079">ownership</a> as a strategic asset. </p>
<p>So far, such proposals for Tata have been <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/we-cant-bail-out-tata-10747152">met with a negative response</a> by Wales’ First Minister, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35360901">who maintains that</a> the top priorities are tackling high energy costs and low steel prices, in combination with exploring the scope for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35347528">tax breaks and business rates relief</a> for businesses in the area. Discussions about the fate of Britain’s steel industry <a href="http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/14220262.MPs_to_debate_future_of_steel_industry_today/?ref=rss">are set to continue</a> in parliament.</p>
<h2>The job problem</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, the issue of job loss looms large. The 750 redundancies announced in Port Talbot simply cannot be absorbed by local government. This chart highlights the nature of the challenge for the Neath Port Talbot Unitary Authority, showing an occupational profile that is skewed away from skilled and professional jobs. Although any alternative jobs that can be found in the short term will help to mitigate the damaging economic, physical and psychological effects of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/05/study-longterm-unemployme_n_779743.html">long-term unemployment</a>, there will clearly be a need to retrain, where appropriate, for jobs outside the steel sector.</p>
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<p>Fortunately, in recent years the Welsh government has <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/more-half-oil-workers-pembrokeshire-9137398">had some success</a> on this front. For example, 57% of redundant oil workers were successfully redeployed – many within the local area – after the sale of a refinery in Pembrokeshire. The strategies used in this case will feed into a review of the options for retraining affected staff, to be undertaken by the government’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35358163">newly-formed task force</a>, which includes union and industry representatives.</p>
<p>But the Welsh government would also do well to learn lessons from elsewhere in the UK. In 2005, the MG Rover plant at Longbridge in the West Midlands closed with over 6,000 job losses. While the majority of these workers have found alternative employment, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268744037_Plant_closures_and_taskforce_responses_an_analysis_of_the_impact_of_and_policy_response_to_MG_Rover_in_Birmingham">research has shown</a> that this apparent success is mitigated by long-term issues caused by the precarious and lower paid jobs which replaced those lost. This clearly suggests the need for a strategic response, which reaches beyond the affected sector and locality to ensure that high-quality jobs are available. </p>
<p>Ultimately, what the Welsh government can do is limited. But at least it has some scope for a regionally-focused intervention in the economy (as does Scotland) and can implement laws that affect economic development, training and planning directly. Areas of England suffering steel sector job losses aren’t so lucky. </p>
<p>The structural changes highlighted by large scale job losses are a symptom of the UK’s unbalanced economy. There has been a <a href="http://www.regionalstudies.org/uploads/documents/SRTUKE_v16_PRINT.pdf">massive increase in regional disparities</a> over the last 45 years: in relative terms growth in the north has plummeted, while the south has continued on an upward trajectory, buoyed by London. Fundamentally, this situation needs to be addressed if we are not to experience déjà vu on a regular basis, when it comes to places like Port Talbot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Clifton has received funding from Welsh Government, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, Wales Social Partners Unit, Economic and Social Research Council, Federation for Small Business, and NESTA (National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts)</span></em></p>Managing the decline of the steel industry is no easy task. So what are the options?Nick Clifton, Professor of Economic Geography and Regional Development, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66522012-05-02T20:34:36Z2012-05-02T20:34:36ZIs the Toyota way the only way?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10019/original/pq7w8hq3-1335503649.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=65%2C49%2C2445%2C1545&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Toyota's decision to escort redundant workers off-site using security guard caused "undeserved harm" and may also have undermined morale and potentially affected productivity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>UPDATE: Workers for transport company 1st Fleet were <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/st-fleet-workers-sacked-on-arrival/story-e6frf7jx-1226345762198">handed redundancy notices</a> when they arrived for work this morning, after the company ceased trading.</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>Are we seeing something of this same attitude recently employed by Toyota in 1st Fleet administrators’ decision to lock-out employees? When might “mutual interest” trump private interest? Our current ways of handling these tensions seem intractable.</strong></em></p>
<p>The 350 redundancies at Toyota’s Altona plant raises some larger and awkward questions for management practitioners and academics – ones that go beyond the usual sensationalist adversarial fixations of business and unions. </p>
<p>What leads an organisation that has a proud record of employee relations and workplace performance to engage in processes that result in costly, embarrassing and arguably unnecessary harm – to its employees, its reputation and its broader stakeholders? </p>
<p>These Toyota redundancies present a vital opportunity for us to reconsider our deeper assumptions in regards to what constitutes appropriate business behaviour and processes. Importantly, to consider connections between firm value creation, longer term corporate performance and social well-being. </p>
<p>It is not just the Occupy Wall Street movement seeking change - concerns over values and its connection to economic growth are purported by leading management scholars such as Harvard Professor <a href="http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=bio&facEmId=mporter">Michael Porter</a>, and demonstrated by the increasing attention to alternative and successful forms of organising business such as the <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21524922">Mittelstand</a> in Germany. </p>
<p>Porter and Kramer write in The Harvard Business Review that they are concerned at the declining legitimacy of big business in today’s society. This is perpetuated by managers’ outdated approach to value creation and the perceived trade-off between economic efficiency and social progress. </p>
<p>They propose the idea of “shared-value” - more than tokenistic efforts of “corporate social responsibility” but a change in managerial mind set. This involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society as a whole (this includes consumers, suppliers, employees and the longer term interests of the broader community). </p>
<p>Part of this approach is recognising that social harms (such as overlooking and disregarding the well-being of customers and employees, and depleting natural resources that are vital to their business) creates costs for businesses. </p>
<p>So in the case of the Altona plant of Toyota, having redundant employees escorted off the site by security personnel causes humiliation and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kekes">“undeserved harm”</a> - as defined by Emeritus Professor in Philosophy at the University of Albany, John Kekes - and undoubtedly low morale and lower productivity for the surviving employees. </p>
<p>These are of course not new insights. The work of German philosopher Immanuel Kant from the 18th century looms uncomfortably large here – that we need to see people (including employees) not merely as means (that is, as resources or commodities) but always as ends – specifically and uniquely, as individuals, worthy of respect for their inherent dignity.</p>
<p>Nor is this academic proselytising – for we see Kant’s insights embraced by some businesses today – especially businesses like the Mittelstand. </p>
<p><em>Mittelstand</em> refers to Germany’s small to medium sized enterprises, accounting for over two thirds of the nation’s economy and 80% of its private sector employment. Almost all of these firms (eg Miele, Beckhoff) are focused on top end niche markets, having invested heavily over many decades in highly trained employees and advanced technologies. They are often family-owned and have strong links to regionally based university research and education. Mittelstand companies also compete on securing higher levels of customer satisfaction - they are not fixated on short-term profit maximisation.</p>
<p>Mittelstand operations are now widely seen as having enabled Germany to successfully withstand much of the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. They have also positioned Germany for sustainable growth. </p>
<p>A key part of this business structure and culture is co-determination. <em>Mitbestimmung</em> meaning literally “having a voice in”, for instance, business decisions. In Germany this collaborative “voice” is not tokenistic, and is applicable to Mittelstand and public companies alike. It is enshrined in their two-board governance, with employee voices as central to that organisation’s success. </p>
<p>There are of course deeply formative political, economic and historical grounds to explain the long and complex
gestation for Mitbestimmung as part of business law in Germany. However, a confluence of recent and disparate examples indicate that ideas of co-determination and ‘shared-value’ are worthy of serious consideration. </p>
<p>For example, as topics at the World Economic Forum in January 2011, in a favourably reviewed special feature in a recent issue of The Economist, and selected writings concerned with the background, origins of and lessons from the ongoing GFC (including authors such as <a href="http://www.amacad.org/publications/Challenges.aspx">Rakesh Khurana</a>, <a href="http://www.ucs.ac.uk/About/Visiting%20Professors%20and%20Senior%20Fellows/Professor%20J%20C%20Spender.aspx">JC Spender</a>, <a href="http://manoa.hawaii.edu/history/content/dr-robert-lockes-new-book">Robert Locke</a>, and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/economic-epidemic-avoid-american-diseaselike-plague-20120420-1xcn1.html">Jonathan Tasini</a>). </p>
<p>We imagine that there is abiding interest in addressing concerns about how we view people not least in business and how we view the role of business in society. As Hungarian philosopher Karl Polanyi wrote in 1944’s The Great Transformation, this is about thinking not in terms of a “market economy” but as “an always embedded market society”. It is this kind of thinking that is needed for Australian business and management practices, and in our management education. </p>
<p><em>EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated since first being published with a reference to redundancies at 1st Fleet, at the authors’ request.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Logue does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>UPDATE: Workers for transport company 1st Fleet were handed redundancy notices when they arrived for work this morning, after the company ceased trading. Are we seeing something of this same attitude recently…Walter Jarvis, Lecturer in Management and Organisations, University of Technology SydneyDanielle Logue, Lecturer in Strategy, Innovation & Organisation, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/64922012-04-17T04:14:51Z2012-04-17T04:14:51ZToyota’s ‘low-productivity’ workers and the problem of performance assessment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9681/original/32t2hcd8-1334632690.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Toyota has culled 350 workers from its Altona plant, based on an assessment system that rated individuals' performance.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As if losing their jobs wasn’t bad enough in a contracting local economy, the 350 laid-off workers from the Toyota plant in Altona, also leave with the stigma of being a “low-productivity” worker or, colloquially, a “slacker”. </p>
<p>How this will impact on future job prospects, their financial situation, and family life remains to be seen. However, it is a fair bet that many will struggle and face significant risk of poverty, long-term unemployment and/or entrapment in precarious jobs, as well as other social and family problems. </p>
<p>According to reports, the high dollar and falling export demand were the main reasons for the retrenchments, but the 350 were selected specifically on the basis of “low productivity” after a process of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-16/toyota-begins-cutting-staff/3951824%20and%20http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/workers-oneway-to-redundancy-20120416-1x3va.html">workplace assessment</a>.</p>
<p>The reports brought to mind the stories of a number of people who participated in my studies on <a href="http://apo.org.au/research/social-risks-precarious-employment-women">low paid, precarious work</a>. The research showed that increased performance targets are a key tool for adjusting labour levels in a range of industries. One woman left a permanent job in a public sector organisation as a result of performance pressures: </p>
<p><em>We were monitored on an hourly basis against performance benchmarks and, if we did not reach them, you would receive an email so there was a lot of pressure. In nine years, the individual benchmarks were doubled. Most people really struggled on a daily basis to make it.</em></p>
<p>Another worker in a call centre describes how work is allocated: </p>
<p><em>What they do is take an average, worked out mathematically and the average is what they expect, that and above, but not below. So, constantly monitoring and assessing you. You’re only as good as your last survey and, if your strike rate on that last day was down a bit, they go by your last performance and that is not always in your control because you get a lot of refusals (to participate in the surveys).</em> </p>
<p>A participant in the study who had worked in a factory reported: </p>
<p><em>All those people in the office, white collars, they’re working out who’s fast and who’s not. And if you are not up to it – because they have you through a (labour hire) agency, you’re not back there. It is like human battery hens. It’s disgraceful.</em></p>
<p>In the first case, performance benchmarks are increased so an entire team of workers is under pressure with some, such as the worker I spoke to, eventually falling by the wayside. In the second case, the call centre worker reported on the lack of control she had over responses to her telephone surveys which meant she did not receive subsequent offers of work. In the third case of the factory, the employer simply used the advantage of excess labour supply to keep and reject workers on the base of their speed – regardless of quality and accuracy of their work. </p>
<p>While performance benchmarks are part and parcel of business practice as an indicator of productivity, it is evident they can also be used as a tool to expedite and justify the disposal of workers with an added benefit to the company of laying the blame on the workers themselves for their inadequacies and failure to make the grade. It also obviates any blame on management for poor practices and failures to adjust in a rapidly changing market situation. </p>
<p>Toyota must have seen the writing on the wall for its exports - and its Altona workforce - with the high Australian dollar over the last two to three years. This calls into question the context under which the performance assessments were made. What pressures were brought to bear on the workforce and individual workers (as per the case studies above)? How were the performance assessments constructed? Was everyone treated equally – including management? How did redeployed injured workers fare in the assessments? </p>
<p>One of the most important questions: how did flexibility relate to productivity in the performance assessments? We know that many workplaces have fostered a culture of multi-skilling to enable workers to move between job tasks and for companies to manage work processes. But can flexible workers - working across a range of areas - meet the highest productivity standards of the specialised workers? What are the implications in performance assessments? </p>
<p>Losing a long-term, full-time permanent job is especially risky for workers over the age of 40 as many of the Toyota workers are. Laid-off workers may find themselves long-term unemployed (and are especially at risk with the stigma of “low productivity”) and ultimately pushed into jobs at much lower levels of security and pay than they held previously. They remain entrapped in these jobs, often cycling between spells of unemployment, including long-term unemployment. This was the experience of many of the women who participated in my studies. </p>
<p>There are few opportunities for regaining the type of jobs these workers held in the past because of the long-term decline in full-time permanent employment. Any sort of insinuation of poor performance in past jobs further reduces opportunities for permanent jobs. Clearly, skill levels and qualifications are important, but the research shows that there is a declining return on these assets, especially for older workers. Furthermore, there are <a href="http://theconversation.com/social-policy-can-secure-a-better-future-for-working-women-5442">few avenues and little support for retraining</a>. </p>
<p>Unemployment and entrapment in low paid, low-quality jobs affects mental and physical health. It damages the fabric of family life and fosters poverty and social exclusion. Companies would do well to consider their social responsibilities for workers that they intend to sack. Loading them up with a set of disadvantages (the stigma of being a low-productivity worker) as they are marched out the door is a particularly sordid and unnecessary business practice. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Sheen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As if losing their jobs wasn’t bad enough in a contracting local economy, the 350 laid-off workers from the Toyota plant in Altona, also leave with the stigma of being a “low-productivity” worker or, colloquially…Veronica Sheen, Research Associate, Political and Social Inquiry , Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.