PR-Bridge

According to a recent AP article, some 10 million people in the United States are now jobless. The national unemployment rate stands at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent, according to government statistics. That number will increase, since several large employers announced new rounds of layoffs, including Ford and GM.

Certainly 10 million unemployed is a significant number – the highest in 25 years. Moreover, the “official” government statistics only tell part of the story when it comes to determining the national unemployment rate, which I discussed in a 2004 article, “The Downside of Downsizing” at The History News Network. These figures only count people actively searching for work, not those who have dropped from the search altogether. More telling in today’s economy, the figures also do not account for people who are underemployed — like a marketing exec, for example, forced to work part-time or in a service industry position to make ends meet.

What cannot be overlooked as the incoming Obama administration searches for ways to fix the ailing economy is that many of these 10 million unemployed people may never fully recover from the psychological devastation of getting downsized. The lack of humanity in the process is staggering, certainly considering the decades of experience corporations now have with mass layoffs. Anyone who has had experience with being laid off or interacting with family or friends who have can relate. Many honest, ethical, hard working people never shake the downsized stigma, carrying it around for the rest of their careers.

From an internal communications perspective, many companies assume that putting together a decent severance package heals the wound. One could argue, however, that putting a dollar figure on an employee’s tenure or work history merely accentuates the pain. For many, no amount of money can overcome the psychological pain, basically equating the job loss with feelings of inadequacy or worthlessness.

When laying off employees, organizations often resort to lawyer-speak in an attempt to thwart potential lawsuits. As a result, people are not provided with meaningful explanations of their termination. Corporate platitudes about stock price, redundancies, and other explanations do little or nothing to keep workers from hefting the psychological scars associated with being laid off.

Economic chaos is going to be the status quo for the immediate future. In response, we should do as much as we can to help those downsized to regain meaningful employment. If those positions are not readily available, then at least we can treat people with dignity, not like outcasts. A critical aspect of fixing the current economic troubles is getting people back to work. Rather than tossing those laid off overboard, the nation needs to find new ways to harness their experience and business knowledge.