Layoff Survivor Syndrome in the Workplace

'Layoff Survivor Syndrome' is a condition coined by experts to describe the anxiety, depression, fear and sometimes physical illness that employees feel as a result of the implementation of layoffs at organizations. These workers that are left behind are seldom thought of as victims in these situations, but in a very real sense they are.

For the last six months I have worked as a Project Manager at a mid-west company that is a Provider of Managed Print and Promotional Marketing Services. While my boss assures me that I am doing a great job and have nothing to worry about, the layoffs continue to happen on a regular basis at this company.

I have anxiously watched twice a month for the last few months as names were whispered on certain days and then suddenly previously-occupied cubicles and offices were empty. People that I had just begun to get to know were now gone. The woman responsible for introducing me to the company, she had been with the firm for 14 years, was laid-off right before Christmas as was her boss who had been the CIO.

Across the United States, 4.4 million workers in 2008 have been handed the proverbial pink-slip. The layoffs are devastating for the unexpectedly unemployed and their family, but there is also a potent impact on the co-workers left behind.

Typically ignored in the aftermath of layoffs are those that manage to avoid the layoff bullet. Those workers left behind at the office now have to manage to perform the same amount of work but with fewer resources, and sometimes knowledge, to get the job done.

As one of my co-workers put it recently, "I know I should be happy to have a job and I am, buts there's so much stress now to figure out how to get all the work done." Sometimes being the ones left behind after the layoffs can be as disturbing as being let go. Managers need to realize that their employee's may need some support with 'Layoff Survivor Syndrome'.

Morale is low right now at companies across the US as workers struggle with how to feel about the layoffs happening around them that they have no control over.

According to Harold G. Kaufman, a professor of management and director of the organizational behavior program at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, "Organizational psychologists call it 'layoff survivor syndrome', the collection of emotional, psychological and physical reactions long documented in workers who remain on the job after the layoffs. Being left behind, they say, can sometimes be as distressing as being part of the layoffs. In fact, the survivors are also victims."

"Employees who keep their jobs during layoffs often feel guilty. It's exactly as when you lose a good friend or a sibling. You feel responsible in some way for the layoffs" said Mitchell Marks, an associate professor of management at the San Francisco State University College of business.

And since layoffs are so random in their timing there is no way to prepare for the fallout that remains after the layoffs occur, nor are layoffs generally based on the employee's performance level so there is no easy way to rationalize the layoffs. The employee left at the company is left feeling like they have no control and can't control their fate.

For now, I will continue to do a really good job even as the layoffs continue around me. I will be going above and beyond just my assignments, looking for additional ways I can make a difference hopefully avoid a layoff. But at the same time I know to keep an emergency fund available and I will keep my resume updated, just in case.