But if the ex-employee had been a net asset, they wouldn't be laying that ex-employee off, unless they were liquidating the entire company.
I've worked as an executive in large organizations and this is flatly untrue. Here's a few situations I've seen or participated in:
- Scrap the project. Get rid of everybody who is assigned to it.
- Not happy with group's performance? Don't fix the group's management, scrap the entire group.
- Product X isn't doing well in the market. Fire everyone who is on the product X team, and acquire the company that makes product Y as a replacement.
- Our access to cash is down, as is our bottom line. Reduce your budget by 20%, again, while maintaining coverage. (read: keep your cheap, shitty people, fire your good ones.)
- We're not starting many new projects. As each existing project comes to a conclusion, get rid of all the resources.
When you're trying to close a large shortfall you just accept that some good people will be let go for stupid reasons, and that's acceptable.
So if you've been laid off, and some ignorant jerk tries to tell you that it means you weren't a net asset, ignore them. Whether it happened during growth, decline or turnaround, it's possible you were let go because you were dead wood; but it's also entirely possibly that you are fantastic but were let go anyway.
I've worked as an executive in large organizations and this is flatly untrue. Here's a few situations I've seen or participated in:
- Scrap the project. Get rid of everybody who is assigned to it.
- Not happy with group's performance? Don't fix the group's management, scrap the entire group.
- Product X isn't doing well in the market. Fire everyone who is on the product X team, and acquire the company that makes product Y as a replacement.
- Our access to cash is down, as is our bottom line. Reduce your budget by 20%, again, while maintaining coverage. (read: keep your cheap, shitty people, fire your good ones.)
- We're not starting many new projects. As each existing project comes to a conclusion, get rid of all the resources.
When you're trying to close a large shortfall you just accept that some good people will be let go for stupid reasons, and that's acceptable.
So if you've been laid off, and some ignorant jerk tries to tell you that it means you weren't a net asset, ignore them. Whether it happened during growth, decline or turnaround, it's possible you were let go because you were dead wood; but it's also entirely possibly that you are fantastic but were let go anyway.