Result of cost-cutting: Stress and anxiety
If your staff have to witness the suffering of others and feel the pressure when delivering the bad news, they will gradually become exhausted. In a recent study, 21 workers from HR departments were surveyed. These people had had to lay off many employees during their careers and terminate contracts with between 20 and 250 people in face-to-face meetings. It turns out that there are several distinct stress triggers, as identified by the strategy-business.com website.
1) Concerns whether their actions are justifiable. They are not sure whether cutting jobs is the right thing to do.
2) The feeling of having an adverse impact on the life of the worker. Learning that one is being sacked is usually very bad news. Repeated exposure to such a situation can result in something similar to post-traumatic stress.
3) The unpredictability of the timing and process of dismissal itself was also a factor since HR people had to carry out the termination as planned by the company’s upper management. Further unknown territory and a potential source of stress is the reaction of colleagues who receive the bad news.
Offer support
The stress of employees associated with performing necessary evil in their companies can reduced by adherence to professional standards and decent behavior. Your bearers of bad news can handle the situations better when they could say and offer something positive at the same time.
Companies should provide these people with training focused on ways to handle uncomfortable situations better. Only counseling is, however, not enough for your HR people. They need freedom in their actions which should, however, be based on solid organizational and procedural foundations of providing help to others.
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