It was not fair......

I was sacked without notice even reason is that fair???

Message from Joanna Anderson ''Woking'' Surrey UK

Dear Mr Zahir Serrai , I hear often that ex-employees demonize their former employer and co-workers after losing their job to downsizing (or for cause). The idea being that management is trying to protect their own jobs at the cost of the released employees jobs. Or, a released employee will state something to the effect of, "The company has plenty of money and they threw me and my family out on the street." As an HR manager, I understand the frustration but I would like to hear how others either deal with this mentality or how ex-employees perceive their ex-employers.

Dear Joanna

I think It is normal human behavior to want to blame someone for a misfortune so it goes something like "why me and not this person" but the truth is, it must be someone. Regardless of whatever circumstance under which a person loses his or her job, there's going to be finger pointing and who better to blame than management. In all honesty, management indeed tries to protect their interest because they are in the position to do so. We would all do same anyway. As for the perception that " The company has plenty of money and they threw me and my family out on the street", that is a lot of nonsense. No one is in a business to make a loss so once a shareholder realizes that it is not achieving one of its core aim as a company, which is to maximize its profit, it considers available options, one of which may be to downsize. It is an unfortunate situation to lose ones job but maybe we should try to evaluate a situation from all angles but not based on how one may be feeling at a particular moment. Losing a job is rarely easy for someone, regardless of how understandable or unavoidable the situation may have been. And there will always be people who demonize or criticize their former employer for taking such action. However, there are steps employers can take to help minimize the chances of terminated employees lashing out. Here are three brief examples. Communications that instil trust and transparency. Sound communications practices start in good times, when things are going well. When managers are forthright and frequent in communicating expectations and results of both individual and business performance, people are less likely to be surprised by or not understand the need for corrective actions. Alternatives that were considered. Too often, management chooses to terminate someone because they don’t know how to, or can’t take the time to, explore other options. People tend to react less negatively when they can see that management considered and tried a reasonable range of alternatives and other solutions before resorting to, or in addition to, termination decisions. Thoughtful and professional approach. If the first two steps described above were taken, one remaining key is how effectively each termination situation is managed. People want to feel that the decision to terminate them, as well as the process or method in which it was done, was carried out in manner that was as caring, objective and professional as possible. Every organization will face decisions like this throughout its life cycle. If the organization is truly interested in how people feel and what people say once they are let go, I have found that taking the above steps can help a great deal.

Zahir Serrai