Photo by HikingArtist/Flickr.com
“Congratulations and welcome to our organisation. I hope you enjoy it here!” are some of the words I said to someone when I hired her and ended that stressful period of uncertainty for her. She was made redundant elsewhere.
“Dude, I’m so sorry. If there’s anything I can do please let me know. I’ll keep an eye and ear out for any jobs that I think you’d be interested in.” That’s what I kind of said to a couple of mates who lost their jobs a few years ago.
But this past fortnight, some of my colleagues whom I’ve laughed with, enjoyed drinks with and worked with for over three years, have seen their roles flushed out of the organisational chart, beyond the chief’s control.
Lucky for them, though, other teams were looking to hire and they were offered new roles. But still, they were (everyone were) devastated that the projects they were delivering were no longer being funded.
These wonderful and intelligent people were stripped of the roles they were so passionate about.
I cannot begin to imagine what must be going on in their minds but I know overall things would hurt so badly.
My challenge has been, for the past two weeks, to find the words. We’ve all been so busy that we haven’t seen each other much lately but when I do… what do you say to colleagues who were told “You’re doing a great job, BUT, we can’t afford to keep this role.”
I feel that I need to say something to them but what exactly do I say?
This fortnight was a crap one. For sure.
