In six months, your co-workers will lose their jobs, do you tell them?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Say you’ve come across a document that clearly states that your co-workers will lose their jobs in six months, including you. You see, you’re not the boss. You should’ve never seen this document. Let’s just say for arguments sake, no matter how you came in contact with it, legal or not, you should NOT have seen it. Do you tell your co-workers? Even if you’re one of the termini’s? If your decision was yes, it most definitely has to be anonymous, of course.

I mean come on, this is some powerful information, what would you do?

2

First, I will start looking for a job and saving as much moolah as possible.

Then I will tell those of my co-workers that I like (talking to them in private and telling them I will deny everything if confronted by management), which will probably ensure that everybody gets told.

3

Take the memo, make a copy and post it on the bulletin board in the break room :slight_smile:

But um, don’t get caught or anything.

4

First, I’d rent the movie Office Space for inspiration. :smiley:

But seriously, I second what The Peyote Coyote said about looking for another job and saving as much as I could. As for the co-worker situation, in all honesty, that would depend on how close I was to them. If they were merely acquaintances, I probably would keep my mouth shut. If they happened to be personal friends, then, yeah, I’d probably end up telling them.

5

If the information were truly “powerful” I would sell it to the highest bidder. That wouldn’t be possible here, so clearly this information isn’t all that powerful. So I would just tell them. Unless I hated them. In which case I would murder them with my ninjas instead.

6

I worked at a place that shut down at 10:00 A.M. on a workday, with police at the door to make sure no one took a computer or whatever. It came out of the blue, and without any warning, about 100 people were suddenly out of work.

People lost homes, lost their cars, couldn’t pay medical bills… it was truly horrible.

By all means, let them know - even if it is the big “rumor”, people might be at least wary before they make a big ticket purchase that they could not afford if they lost their jobs. No one deserves to go through that hell, and if you are really certain, then PLEASE let people know.

7

I’d be looking for another job real damn quick. I’d probably let co workers know real unoffically that they maybe ought to explore options.

8

DMark makes a very good point. My mom used to work in a restaurant that was located in a mall. The entire mall knew that this particular place was closing down on New Year’s Eve: but did the employees know? No. They didn’t know till that day. The boss didn’t tell them (although she knew she was going to do it for months) because she was afraid they would go out and find new jobs and she’d be stranded during the Christmas season.

These were piddlyass restaurant jobs so nobody lost their home or anything, but a lot of people were pretty inconvenienced for a while, not to mention extremely pissed off.

Now that I’ve thought about it more, yes, you should tell. There’s no telling who of your coworkers might be house hunting soon, or buying a new car, or trying to get pregnant and counting on their health insurance to be there, etc. Maybe you should have never seen the memo, but you did and you can save people a lot of trouble. Your employer is going to can you anyway, so why keep their dirty little secret? Hell with 'em.

9

I’d use it as leverage for really good layoff compensation package…

10

I say do whatever you can to screw over the company before you leave.

11

It isn’t powerful in the sense of a money value. But is powerful in a sense that DMark pointed out. I know folks buying new homes, planning for familys and buying new cars. I would think this is something people should know, but my conscious is telling me its wrong. But so is the company for not telling anyone until the last minute. It happened here before and I do not want to see people go through it again.

…and yes, my resume is under construction.

12

I’ve had the exact situation described in the OP happen to me personally, on three or more occasions - due to absolute sloppiness. Except that I was never on the list myself. And the answer was “no”, I didn’t tell anyone.

For one thing, the lists were dynamic - depending upon how the financial prospects looked, the numbers were increased or decreased. One week, it was 35 people. Two weeks later, 50. Then later, one day before the layoff, it was called off. Another time, it wasn’t, but only 20 people were let go - the purpose of the list allowed other senior managers to scan the people on it, and try desperately to find ways people could be transferred or moved to part-time.

For another, there were only a small handful of people who could possibly have stumbled on it “on accident”.

Third, there is a real risk of a co-worker using the information and “laying down the law” with the company and mentioning where they heard it from. There would be an investigation, and it would come back to me.

Finally, I am a manager too, and believe it or not some people actually have some honor and responsibility towards confidential matters they run across in work. And I knew the people making the lists, and why the lists were made. And I knew that the reason there was a list of people was not because the company management was filled with evil Republicans trying to put their jackboot on the throat of the worker, but because we were in very serious financial trouble, and it was a matter of lay off 50 now, or close the entire company down shortly later on.

And using the document to give people “leverage” against the company sounds very unethical to me. The only thing that would happen is, they would file a suit against the company, the company would lose more money, and more of their co-workers would be laid off. No court can make the basic economics of a company turn around, so “sticking it to the man” in this case would actually be a very selfish and destructive act. Not that that ever stopped anyone.

13

That’s another thing. If it came back to me, I could be sued for work lossed if people started ditching their jobs right away. That could add up to… bankruptcy, and a lotta paperwork, not cool. Also, I’m now out to “get the man”, because I understand why a small company may have to due certain things to get by. But this company is a multi-billion dollar a year company and is merely cutting people to get a .50 cent profit on their stocks, and giving the work lost by those fired to those still working while at the same time, boosting stress levels and decreasing moral, only to fire these people and start the cycle all over again, IMO.

So I guess I’m confused. I don’t want to be that guy that “goes after the man”, which is well deserved in this case. But I also don’t want to be the guy that could’ve given these people a heads up of bad things to come.

If I decide to go through with it, I’ll probably email it anonymously through one of those cafes with internet service, just to those close to me, but I’m sure the word will spread quick. I still have time to decide, which is why I’m gathering responses here. Thanks to all those which have replied so far.

14

:eek:

Um, not out to “get the man”…

15

In addendum - someone brought up a very good point of “buying new homes, planning for familys and buying new cars.” For the situation of a totally unplanned, out of the blue layoff, I would change my answer, and possibly drop an anonymous note, if someone could change a financial choice and try to keep themself safer. I have much, much fewer ethical qualms about that, as I feel the company should have sent some clear signals that things Were Not Good.

However, in the situation I was in, any employee who did not know that…

  1. the company was in serious trouble and
  2. layoffs were already happening all around them
  3. the layoffs were happening without warning and without (apparent) cause in some cases

…was either pretty dense, or asleep every day at work.

16

I knew my boss was going to be fired for sometime before it actually took place. I did not tell her. I do not like her. Had I liked her and wanted to help her save her job, I would have told her. She was worthless and I am glad she is gone. ( even thought I am stuck doing all her work for no more money than I was getting before. )

17

The company I worked for told some of us two or three years ago that we’d be laid off. They offered us “retention bonuses” if we didn’t quit until that time. While we weren’t too keen on the layoffs, we did appreciate the advanced warning which gave us time to prepare. As it turned out, only a couple of people were laid off and the rest of us got half our retention bonuses (which were to be part of the layoff package) anyway.

Fast forward to September 2003. We had had a new president and VP for a couple of months. An entire section of our department was laid off. Suddenly. People who had no reason to believe they would be laid off were not prepared for it. There were many tears.

The rest of us waited for the other boot to drop. We were told that we were okay. When it was brought up to the new manager that morale had plummeted and that we “knew” more layoffs were coming, we were met with incredulous looks and “Why would you think that? Don’t worry.”

October 7th 2003. We had an all-hands meeting where the president of the North American operations congratulated us all on a job well done, and he told us how much our revenues had grown in the last quarter. Things are looking up.

October 8th 2003. Eight more of us were suddenly laid off as we arrived for work in the morning.

As you all know, I was in the process of buying a house. I had just bought a new motorcycle in July. If we had been given advanced notice of our layoffs, I would not have bought the bike. I would have tried to close the house more quickly and I would not have taken a week off to go kayaking in Canada. It would have been much better for all of us if we had known.

And it wasn’t as if it was not known that we would be laid off. The new manager knew it before she even accepted the position. When asked directly if there would be more layoffs, she lied. In the previous situation, where we knew it was coming (but it didn’t), we could prepare. When we were laid off without warning, plans that people make in their lives were thrown asunder. It’s much better for the employees to be told as long beforehand as possible. After all, we were all professionals.

There is a rumour that the remainder of the old crew will be gone in April. The VP has a reputation of getting rid of people and bringing in her own crew. When one person served his notice that he was going back to his old division, he was asked if he would consider staying on “just until April”. That seems to confirm the rumour. My friend who is still there is disgusted by the behaviour of the management team. She’d really like to quit. But she says she’ll be damned if after 24 years she’s going to leave without here severence package. (A note to our European Dopers: You will find severence packages to be rather paltry, even though here in the States a week’s pay for every year of service completed is considered very, very generous. FWIW, I got nine week’s pay. Nearly half of it was taken away in the form of withholding taxes.)

So yes; tell your co-workers.

18

You could always do the “Hey, I heard a rumor that there are going to be layoffs around here soon” thing.

In many places, rumors serve as unofficial news outlets for corporations.

19

Remember that this document might not be the complete truth. As Una said, such lists are often subject to continual change. Also, if you haven’t read it very carefully and in great detail (or if you haven’t read any of the correspondence that preceded it), there’s the risk of misinterpreting the missive itself.

So no, I wouldn’t tell people that they’re about to be laid off. I would, however, consider letting people know about my concerns regarding the company’s future.

20

I think most people already realize that if they have a job that can be outsourced or moved to asia where it can be done cheaper by asian labor, that they are going to lose their jobs anyways eventually, sooner than later. I dont think what you found is really much of a surprise, nor something unexpected.

Some people would prefer not knowing exactly when their job is going to be moved to asia, I think it is better to not tell anyone. They will have plenty of time to fret, stress, and worry after they are officially notified, why prolong it by telling them now?