How To Get Laid Off

Yesterday, I talked about one way
executives avoid paying severance.

So what do you do
if you’re the target of
an isolate and ignore campaign?

You get yourself laid off.

Laid off, not fired.
Fired means no golden parachute,
no cash to fund your transition.
Not good.
You have to be annoying
but not break any of the written rules.

If your workplace is suits and ties
(and there is no written dress code),
you go in semi-casual.
If meetings are stuffy and formal,
you crack (clean) jokes.
You ask your boss tough questions
in front of others
(bring out some of the dead bodies).
You do what you’re told
but you don’t volunteer.

Eventually, you will be let go.
You’ll get no reference
but if they were trying to get rid of you,
you wouldn’t get that anyway.

How To Avoid Paying Severance

In these tight financial times,
executives are doing their best
to avoid giving costly severance packages
to downsized employees.

One way to do that?

Isolate and ignore.
A loved one’s manager was replaced.
He had been with the company
for decades.
The severance package would have been substantial.

So the company didn’t lay him off.
They moved him to a smaller office,
took away his assistant
and his staff,
gave him a useless task to do
and then ignored him.

Completely.

The manager was upset
but there was no basis for a lawsuit
(ignoring someone is not a crime).
Eventually his ego couldn’t take it
and he left.

No severance paid.