It Isn’t You, It’s Us

The phrase, “it isn’t you, it’s me” is something you’ve heard in relationships, group settings and friendship. With an employer it changes to “it’s us”. But what if that was something they were just saying?

There are things I pay for that I value, even when money is tight. I like my Apple subscriptions to music and games because they seem to give me more at the same price. Millions of songs and fun games I can download without advertisements. There are certain things I just wont sacrifice and generally those are things that present value to me. So when it comes to work, why is it your last day at the company. Were you valued?

A lot of companies will tell you when they’re laying you off that it was because they decided to eliminate your position. They will state that it’s because they didn’t make the money they thought they would or that growth is slow. It does beg the question on who they VALUE. If they had truly valued you, they would have put deep time and thought into ways of circumventing the elimination of your position or putting you into a role where you could keep contributing. They’re changing the titles of your leadership to help those people keep their jobs. Why aren’t they doing it for you? They said they valued you right?

Consider for a moment that these are just words to excuse them from telling the truth. They didn’t value you. It didn’t matter about the longer hours and extra efforts. If they’re hanging onto other people and letting you go, those are people they clearly value. There could be a million reasons. Those people have been their longer, they know a lot more about the business than you do or there are personal friendships at stake. Then there are other reasons they may not be sharing with you. The found someone better to do your job and they’re eliminating your position to create a new position similar to what you did. Someone made a mistake in hiring you and there is a silent consensus that there is a qualification they think you’re missing or a credential or accreditation they wanted you to have. You’re part of an old structure and they didn’t bother to ask you about your ability to adapt because they wanted to wipe the slate clean and start fresh.

These are possibly all things that, by the time you’re laid off, probably won’t matter much. I reflect on my layoffs from time to time. At one of them, I was in training for a title I was already doing. After I was laid off, my position became “in name only” which meant no official title with no pay increase. That position went to someone I helped get hired. A director from the outside was brought in to run my department for a little while and then the position I had worked hard for was given to that same person I helped in hiring. The things that happened made me wonder if this was just a position elimination or to get rid of someone they had no intention of promoting while making a quick money grab. I had made an HR complaint so I could have been considered a liability.

Here’s the truth. A company that VALUES you won’t put you into a training program for a position. Either you’re qualified for it or you’re not. A growing company pulls from a set of people they have in mind for the position. They aren’t going to try you out for a while to see if you’ll work out. You tell them you want the position, they interview you for it and then it’s a yes or a no. They don’t give you the responsibility at the same amount of pay to see if you can handle it.

So how do you determine if you’re valued? Firstly you need to ask yourself if you’re doing your very best. If you feel you are, its time to speak to a peer for feedback. Still good? Talk to your leader next. At that level, ask that person how they feel you could add more value to what you do? Don’t give them the excuse to ask you to increase workload to that of someone doing the work for more pay under a new title. Just ask them about what more you can do within the parameters of your existing position. Once the feedback is given, work as hard as you can to fill in those gaps. Lastly, when talk of layoffs start floating around, update your resume immediately and go to every resource at your existing employer to get honest answers on the likelihood of your position being eliminated and the time frame. This also helps determine value.

Layoffs are sad things and quite often they can teach you a lot about the employer you worked for. Some of them are truly out of money and others just wanted more for themselves with old buddies and friends taking a position you put hard work and substance into. When you see these things it’s best to look deeper before the layoff takes place. Is your company serious about growth? Were they ever? The question of value could be a company wide problem and it may be time for you to re evaluate your relationship with them.