Layoffs do not just cut jobs; they reshape how surviving employees behave at work

Layoffs rarely only impact the employees who are fired. Even long after layoffs have been announced, those who remain within the organization start adjusting their behavior in terms of working, communication, and reaction under stress. Employees become more productive and do not take sick days. Other employees become exhausted and stressed.

The research states that all the above factors are highly related to how employees see the fairness of the process, as well as job and organizational security.

One of the research papers in the Journal of Management found that organizational commitment decreases among surviving employees if the layoff process is seen as an unfair one. According to the results, survivors tended to reevaluate their organizational relationships in response to the layoffs.

Why fairness matters after layoffs

Layoffs are usually assessed by workers based on both the outcome and the process.

If communication is poor or there are inconsistencies in decision-making, a sense of mistrust can develop within the team. As reported by Psychology Today, when layoffs are less transparent or when there is a lack of open communication amid uncertainties, employees tend to have a negative reaction to such events.

These perceptions of fairness affect motivation, emotional attachment, and behavior at work.

According to the study published in the Journal of Management, layoffs commonly trigger a perception of injustice in other workers, leading to a weaker organizational identification among employees working at various hierarchical levels within the company. While workers may keep doing their jobs, their emotional connections to the company can be weakened.

In such situations, management communication becomes critical. According to Psychology Today, good communication helps maintain trust among those workers who survive the layoffs.

Why do some employees begin working harder

It is not necessary that every employee responds to the layoffs in the same manner, i.e., by becoming unproductive.

Research by The Journal of Management found that workers at the bottom level responded positively to being laid off by working hard without missing any days from their jobs. According to the research, such a response may arise due to fears concerning future job security.

In most organizations, the layoff process gives rise to a condition where employees feel threatened to show themselves at work. Such efforts might be good for the moment, as far as productivity is concerned, but may also mean that employees are feeling insecure because of their jobs.

Managers and professionals face different pressures

Emotional impacts of layoffs are not uniformly experienced among organizations. Research also suggests that the managers and professionals who interacted with the process of layoffs experienced an increase in their rate of absence from work. This behavior was explained through the stress of organizing layoffs, consoling distressed workers, and managing organizational uncertainty.

Senior-level employees are required to provide stability during times of organizational disturbance while at the same time taking on more responsibilities because of the reduction in manpower.

This situation leads to emotional exhaustion and withdrawal from activities, such as higher levels of absence.

Emotional exhaustion after workforce cuts

Layoff survivors often find themselves suffering from stress resulting from a bigger workload and an uncertain future. As mentioned in the Journal of Human Values, emotional exhaustion of the surviving workers can decrease their job satisfaction levels and contribute to a negative office atmosphere. A heavy burden of extra work and uncertainty might cause employees stress even after layoffs have been conducted.

It is not only the workers who have experienced losing colleagues that suffer from emotional distress in such situations. As described in Psychology Today, fear of layoffs to come can cause long-term job insecurity, influencing concentration and cooperation at the workplace.

Surviving employees often concentrate more on their job security than on anything else.

Why turnover intentions rise after layoffs

Retention problems may also arise in the aftermath of downsizing.

It was discovered in an article by BMC Public Health that the sense of being treated unfairly by a company while downsizing is linked with a significant rise in turnover intention. The perception of unfair treatment of people laid off could result in an employee distancing himself/herself from the organization.

Thus, an organization faces further difficulties in its attempts to restore stability after reducing its personnel.

In sum, the implications of layoffs can be long-lasting. From the analysis of all the mentioned sources, one can conclude that layoffs have the ability to change the attitude of employees regarding their work and organization in which they used to work in quite unexpected ways.

From the perspective of organizations, it can be said that employees will not only react to whether layoffs occurred at all but to the way in which they are managed and communicated.