Going Further

Last November I posted on LinkedIn, recapping how , a year to the date,  I’d received a settlement agreement, declined to sign it, and resigned instead. I also emphasised that my decision not to waive my rights had afforded me an opportunity for voice - and that I intended to use it. 

I shared that LinkedIn post to hold myself accountable, to, when the time felt right, getting this out into the universe. 

The support and encouragement has been amazing. And the time is right. 

So, buckle up, folks! Here I go… 

(Well Not Quite) First, Some Disclaimers…

• Everything expressed here is my opinion. And, the fact that I can write this, isn’t the (only) reason I’m doing it; I want to see things change for the better, and I want to see companies go further.
• I believe in being authentic, and it’s me… so that means I’m going to be honest, sarcastic (and a bit sweary, too!)
• Even actual redundancies, that are handled with compassion, can reduce autonomy for those impacted to an incredibly stressful degree. It should be no surprise therefore, that badly-handled layoffs have the potential to establish really harmful internalised narratives about one’s sense of purpose or worth ... The latter is what I experienced, and I’m sharing a description of that experience here. (By way of a trigger warning, I’ll be referencing depression. Click away if that might not be well-timed reading.) 
• I’ve tried hard to keep this from veering into pity-party territory and to be clear, I’m not looking for sympathy, not least because that would be inappropriate. According to the tracking done by Layoffs.fyi. (at the time of writing this article) there were 262,735 job losses in tech last year alone. I certainly don’t think I’m special.
• And finally, some words about the past-employer I’m referring to in this article. Some of the most dedicated, resilient and talented people I’ve ever worked with were, or still are there. They’ve got a good product that had an (at the time) emerging use case that I thought was exciting . I have my time there to thank for everything that’s happened since and is going to happen next, and I learned so much (for better or worse.) Most importantly, my experiences combined to form my present sense of motivation, and for that I’m very grateful.

Going Further

It’s absolutely the case that from our darkest and deepest challenges, the most significant transformation emerges. 2023 was an important year for me, but also a sad one. Sad enough that it’s fair to say I properly despaired over the state of workplace culture for the first time in my career. Like, shit got existential.

People teams dug so, so deep to empathise, understand, respond, adjust, communicate (and continue to deliver our strategic initiatives) during the pandemic. Then when things finally unlocked, we dug deep again to rebuild. 

We were already exhausted.

Now, companies are shedding significant costs, and kicking their most experienced People professionals out — too often, it seems, by way of their first move - after those People leaders have literally done their job properly, and demonstrated how headcount can reduce without the financial ‘necessity’ that’s being touted, equating to the justification for behaving like a bunch of self-absorbed amateurs.

In the name of doing my bit for solidarity (and because there really ‘isn’t any HR for HR’) here’s a description of my own experience. If you’ve been through something similar and would like to talk, my DM’s are always open for you.

A while into being a company’s VP People, ahead of planned headcount reduction, I was given a massively expanded remit, in a standalone role. The only firmly communicated instruction was that my new role required direct attribution to CAC and that it needed to sit in a different departmental cost centre. I was also — finally — given the ‘opportunity’ to bring in a People Director (to cover the area of my core skill, knowledge and experience.) 

To me, it felt like clear and obvious, constructive bullshit.

In addition, as soon as they communicated my role would be changing, my manager kicked off an associated ostracisation process that I’d seen doled out before; something they proudly label their ‘door slam’. No matter what has preceded it (and also, by nature of what it entails) nobody deserves it - let’s be clear. It remains the most pernicious, psychologically abusive tactic I’ve ever seen or experienced. 

Given it really wouldn’t have taken a genius to deduce what the company was up to (and how horrible it was having a door metaphorically slammed in my face) you’d be perfectly valid in thinking ‘this all sounds a bit self-inflicted.’ 

And you’re right, sort of. 

Job market aside , I could have left sooner. And I did choose to stay. In fact, not only did I stay, I worked incredibly hard for months, in a weird, protracted, precarious state of ‘when’s this all going to end’ limbo, and delivered work I’m still proud of to this day.  (Why did I stay? Well, we’d be getting into much deeper personal stuff there, and I might share the most vulnerable version of this story, in future.) 

It ended like this: I was being removed from any involvement in the headcount reduction planning. The ‘reorg’ I thought we were doing, before my eyes became the sort of layoffs that in so many ways don’t cover businesses in glory. Then people started getting fired. The instruction that had been given to the relevant departmental lead seemed to be to ignore me and my team (until it came to requesting we retrospectively scrape together some confirmation-of-outcome paperwork.)

In a couple of cases I believe the firings were unfair - at best. I’m probably not able to say much more than this; imagine a couple of potential examples of the most inequitable ways in which people could lose their job, and you’d be on the money. 

I shared my discontent with what I’d learned had been transpiring. And, that straw seemed to break the camel’s back. 

The ‘protected conversation’ finally came and just under three years of dedication, energy and effort was reduced to a perfunctory conversation that lasted less than one minute, with a compassionless founder who I had — quite literally— scraped off the floor in his lowest moments in the past.

I’d been fractional for the first year, so in employment law terms I couldn’t make an unfair dismissal claim (that two year tenure milestone was - conveniently - just around the corner.) 

They were offering no actual settlement beyond meeting statutory obligations — and they wouldn’t budge. 

I said; no money, no silence my dudes and I will not sign this shit. 

They received a (comprehensive) resignation letter instead.

Done.

Except, not quite.

The Human Reality

My reality — the human reality — saw me pushed professionally and psychologically right out to the edges; to the edges of a leadership team, to the edges of believing whether the role of a People leader serves meaningful purpose for any businesses when the chips are down, and to the edges of anything close to sustainable mental health. 

One of my closest and most trusted friends, who is a fellow People Leader, said to me in the midst of all this, “You know what Gin, this is never just a job for us. We care. And we should never have to defend that.”

When I was ostracised and then forced to disappear from a business without saying goodbye, when some of the best working relationships I’d ever had were taken away from me, when I watched from the sidelines as the company’s culture spiralled (including some very gnarly Glassdoor activity and two People Directors bouncing out as soon as they’d joined) I came to realise I’d had to invest far too much energy in defending why I cared - and why the company should have cared, too. 

But… Here's the rub! Despite the toxicity and lack of people-centricity being demonstrated, I also felt rejected, and bereaved. 

Welcome, depression. May and June of 2023 were awful. If I’m honest, I probably didn’t get through a 24 hour period without crying at least once, but on the really bad days, I woke up, started crying and couldn’t shift it all day. On the worst days I couldn’t get out of bed at all.

"Maybe money does justify any and all behaviour. Maybe I am just doing fluffy stuff. Maybe I have wasted an entire career. Maybe the whole concept of people-centricity in companies is, actually, redundant…"

Layoffs are always incredibly culturally-impacting. They make everyone anxious. What’s especially irksome, is that some of those responsible for hurrying through the sorts of ‘cost-cutting’ procedures we’ve seen in multiple examples recently (ones that keep the People professional out of the discussion, or define their role purely as the deliverer of bad news) appear to feel totally empowered to own their tyranny as part of their internal leadership brand. 

The easiest path is rarely the right one, and the ‘soft’ stuff (🙄) is actually, always the hardest - and the most important to get right. 

Companies are not spreadsheets. However, leaders seem to be allowing themselves to hide behind those spreadsheets, mishandle everything, drop any facade of professionalism, mutter shallow statements like “that’s life” or “business is tough” and kick people who had no idea their jobs were this precarious, with mouths to feed, out into a challenging jobs market, without even blinking. 

And let’s face it, one person’s ‘financial necessity’ is someone else’s reckless self-interest. 

I’ve heard stories of companies enacting layoff processes on the basis of a ‘financial necessity’ narrative, while simultaneously approving significant pay-rises for the CSuite. I’ve heard stories of companies avoiding any form of actual redundancy assessment, taking out the fewest number of the highest salaries they can (because, who can be bothered to run a collective process, am I right?) before immediately going on huge recruitment spending sprees. 

The messaging and the realities out there right now, feel hypocritical to say the least, and this wilful mishandling and refusal to acknowledge the human impact, isn’t a subjective choice. 

It just isn’t. It can’t be anymore. I’m so done.

I am tired of the conversation about this all boiling down to whether you’re ‘pro-company or pro-employee’. I’ve seen the validity of companies being ‘people-first’ starting to get questioned on LinkedIn at a time where as far as I can tell, we’ve got so much work to do.

The gap is huge. And the vague interpretation of concepts like ‘fair’ and ‘reasonable’ has got me scared. 

And, it’s like the whole People function is being gaslit. (And I think gaslighting is an overused word. I am not throwing it around here. I very much mean it.) A whole department being gaslit, is a problem.

Going Further

There’s a ‘transparency in People Operations’ movement happening at the moment that I believe is the direct outcome of so many gaslight-y gaps; for example…

The gap between ‘our people are important’ and the actions that demonstrate the direct opposite, the gap between your employer brand and the actual, lived employee value proposition you provide, the gap between ‘competitive salary’ and what you’re actually paying, the gap between ‘we’re super flexible’ and ‘you must be at your desk three days a week’. 

I want to work with businesses that have real integrity and that aren’t afraid to be authentic or transparent. I want to work with managers and leaders committed to delivering for their people and their culture. I want to work with people who aren’t pretending, and where People & Culture isn’t a tick-box exercise, or a facade that’s only conceptually valid to strategise over during good times. Because it’s in the tough times that our values are truly tested. 

Through Further , I’m excited to make this happen. 

Getting Back to Purpose

I’m a People person, in all the senses; professionally and in personality type and in how I unlock outcomes. I’m emotionally intelligent, a good listener, an effective mediator and I am able to handle tough conversations; in fact, I take pride in handling them well. I’m empathetic, and (so I’ve been told) a good manager and leader of people.

But for a huge chunk of 2023, I contemplated if those were just pointless skills to have.

In 2024, I’m proudly reclaiming being a ‘People person’. My sense of purpose is back, and thanks to everything you’ve read about here, it’s stronger than ever! 

Further is here to help companies make digestible improvements to the systems, structures and practices that directly correlate with unlocking the full potential of their talented team members. 

If you’re interested in coming on this journey with me, please follow Further on Linkedin.