7 Ways to Overcome the Layoff Survivor Sickness

Stress from a layoff affects everyone in a business, not just the people who are being fired but due to their need to assemble teams with fewer individuals, managers are also under pressure. The event is stressful for HR leaders and upper management is concerned that the decision might come back to bite them.

Nonetheless, the “survival group,” or those that avoided being laid off, is one of the most difficult groups to be a part of.

Workers who were not permitted to leave during the event may experience remorse, worry, and general malaise for some time after it has ended. This condition is known as “layoff survivor sickness,” Managing it can be challenging. So in this article, we talk about what is layoff survivor sickness and how to overcome it.

What is Layoff Survivor Sickness?

Job losses have an impact on individuals still employed by the company in terms of their emotions, minds, and organizations. Researchers see workplace survivor sickness, which refers to consequences experienced by people who “survive” the layoff strategy, as a result of downsizing and reorganization.
Like with any traumatic incident, survivors encounter a variety of negative side effects, including decreased productivity, a lack of faith in organizational dedication and leadership, unfavorable attitudes, and increased work-life balance difficulties.
The following are some of the negative consequences that a person with workplace survivor syndrome could encounter, according to a report by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES):

• Loss of confidence in the upper management of the company 
• Frustration at the layoff procedure
• Guilt for continuing to work when others lose
• Fear of becoming “next” to be fired
• Resentment about having to do more labor

How Do You Deal With Layoff Survivor Guilt?

1. Recognize Your Emotions

Once the layoff is finished, you might feel guilty, depressed, or afraid. While your instincts urge you to remain composed and move forward, you should stop and give yourself a moment to breathe. Pushing through while suppressing these feelings could cause issues later on if they explode.

It could be a good plan to begin by writing things down. According to research, writing about your feelings might be a useful tool for reducing stress and distressing feelings. Take a notepad and start writing all the feelings you feel about the situation

2. Find a Goal

Despite the temptation to improve your productivity due to an increased workload or concern over potential layoffs, resist the desire. Refocus on finding meaning in your work so that you can support your team in doing the same. Spend some time adjusting to the ways that your role and the atmosphere of the office have altered. Losing beloved teammates or abandoning enjoyable tasks or projects can be debilitating. Stop, and give yourself some time to get used to your new workplace.

3. Keep In Touch With Your Coworkers

Making connections with your coworkers would be a wonderful idea. There may be others who are feeling the same things you are. You can get in touch with them and explain your side of the story; this will encourage them to open up. In this situation, you can serve as the icebreaker, and networking with coworkers will help to create a powerful union within the company. You would have the assurance that you are not alone thanks to this sense of consensus.

4. Disconnect Your Self-Esteem From Your Workplace

If you find self-esteem in the type of work you perform rather than where you do it, you’ll recover from layoff survivor sickness more quickly. Breaking organizational codependence refers to the idea that you should place more worth and significance in your career than in your employer. Put your self-esteem in your own hands, not in the hands of your organization.

5. Speak To A Trusted Person

Don’t hold your emotions within. According to a researcher, speaking about your feelings can be therapeutic. Seek out and talk to someone you value if you notice that these feelings are keeping you up at night. Naturally, if you so want, you may seek counseling. Find out whether there are any services offered by your firm by contacting your HR department.

If that doesn’t work, talk to a person you already know. For instance, you might want to talk to your spouse or a good friend about your feelings. Inform them that you need to talk and outline the implications of this shift for you. You can tell the person you’re confiding in that you’ve been feeling layoff guilty.

6. Communicate To Your Senior Manager Or Supervisor

The time has come to talk with a supervisor or HR official about how the downsizing process was handled and what was expected of the employees, especially if the corporation was secretive about it. 

Remember that managers may oversee a smaller staff and will need to cope with the strain that comes with it in addition to the feelings involved in selecting which employees to fire. Chatting might also be beneficial to executives, who frequently feel like they have to keep their feelings to themselves and uphold a rigid image.

7. Recognize That Your Response Is Appropriate

There’s always an effect on your psychological health from significant life transitions. You will have been impacted by the layoff even though you still have a job.

For example, employment losses can force you to take on more work. Likewise, you can be concerned about the future of your employment. Given that, it makes sense that you are battling a range of emotions. Self-talk that you’re “just being dumb” or that you should “just move on” will only make the situation worse. Your feelings are legitimate.

8. Reduce The Pressure

This is particularly important if you are the supervisor who initiated the layoffs. Staff cutbacks always result in significant adjustments for your company. Also, this will affect how often scheduled activities run. That may increase the implicit pressure on your staff to perform as routinely as possible. But this lacks both sympathy and realism. The connections with your current staff should be a priority, and you should watch out for any efficiency barriers.

What Are The Effects Of Layoffs On Surviving Employees?

The repercussions of layoffs on surviving employees are discussed at the beginning of the article, but the major cause of all these effects is survivor guilt, which causes all of the negative feelings that accompany layoffs in a company. So what is survivor guilt?

Survivor’s guilt is a normal psychological phenomenon that people who have gone through a catastrophic event, such as job layoffs, suffer. The phrase describes the regret, sadness, and feelings of guilt that people who have survived an incident while others have not. This is often the case in the workplace, where layoffs can cost people their jobs and their connections, leaving those who have survived feeling overwhelmed with guilt.

Layoffs can occasionally occur abruptly, giving workers little opportunity to get used to the new situation. Those who have survived the layoffs may feel a great deal of shame, worry, and sadness as a result of the event.

The feeling that one could have done more to stop the layoffs or assist the people affected might lead to survivor’s guilt. It may also result from the conviction that one was “selected” to survive whereas others perished, which breeds thoughts of being inadequate and self-doubt. The burden of trying to support one’s family and friends may overburden those who are dealing with survivor’s guilt, which can result in emotions of worry, despair, and imposter syndrome.

Conclusion

It always stinks to witness coworkers that you worked with every day losing their jobs. It’s nearly certain that the days or even weeks that follow will be overcast, but it’s crucial to keep in mind that with time and the appropriate attitude, you and the office will quickly get back to business as usual. Despite the fact that you can’t change what has already happened, you can influence what happens next.