Recently, there was a massive layoff due to the economics. Unfortunately, a friend of mine that I work with was out of town for the past two weeks and wasn’t around at the time of the layoff. Needless to say, my friend is one of the people due to be laid off but management is waiting until they return to work to let them know. They called another employee on something unrelated recently and found out about the layoff but was not informed due to that employee not knowing all the names of the people laid off.
My question is, since I know what’s going to happen once they return to work, should I give the ‘heads up’ call to my friend or just leave it in management’s hands? I’m kinda expecting this person to call me before they return to work and I’m sure they’re going to ask questions.
I think it’d be okay to tell him what you’ve heard, if he asks. But I wouldn’t tell him he’s laid off, since what you’ve heard might not be accurate, and it might not apply to him. It’d be on you if he acted on incorrect information.
Yeah, we work in the same place. I heard it straight from our manager this morning about his fate. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but I don’t want it to come back that I knew and didn’t tell him before hand. We’ve worked together on a few jobs for the past 12 years and this current job is the only way we stay in contact due to our schedules. I hate to know someone’s coming into work after two weeks and being blindsided by a layoff.
Is he on vacation? If so, you probably don’t want to ruin his time off. If you must give him advance warning, I’d get ahold of him the night before he’s due to return to work. Maybe go out for a beer or something, and tell him what you know. I wouldn’t give him the info as hard facts, but leave a little wiggle room there like “You know these layoffs are going on. I’ve heard that you might be a part of the cuts and just want you to have some advance warning so you’re not completely blindsided tomorrow.” He should appreciate the heads up. He’d appreciate it less if you told him in the middle of a vacation he’s trying to enjoy.
Chances are though, if he knows that layoffs are happening from his previous call, he’s going to be prepared for his name to get called as well.
This kind of happened to me once when I was out of town. Layoffs happened, though luckily I wasn’t one of the ones let go. However, I found out about the cuts while I was away and was pretty much worried sick the entire time until I finally got back to work and found out I was safe.
I’ve decided not to get involved and I’m expecting a call from him tomorrow letting me know what happened. He was training on another job (this was his part-time job) but he is/was a very integral part of our department. The only reason they’re letting him go is because all the part time employees had to let go in the layoff process. He’s been here over 5 years and knew that if there was going to be another layoff (had one a few years back) that he’d be on the list. I’m just going to thank my lucky stars that I’m still here unless they have plans for me tomorrow too!