The lifeboat drill
What’s the lifeboat drill? If you’ve seen the movie Titanic then you will know the situation, too many people and not enough seats in the lifeboats. How do you decide who gets a seat and who doesn’t. Life can be like this too. More than a few times in my career I’ve had my direct manager come to me and say we need to downsize. Tell me who we’re going to lay off. I need to know by the end of the day. Yikes!
As a manager this a situation no one ever looks forward to (it’s terrible) but you know in the back of your mind that business is cyclical and at times it’s necessary to keep the company going. A couple of times during my career come to mind in particular. Once long ago at a boot strapping startup company where I had to let 70% of my team go at once, another time in 2008 during the housing downturn where I had to do successive waves of layoffs until I was eventually laid off myself. So I’m no stranger to this situation. This is a situation that you need to be prepared for – as a manager and as an employee.
What if I’m a contractor not a FTE? This also happens at companies that invest minimally in Full Time employees, keeping fixed costs low and augmenting with temporary workers (Vendors and Contractors). For those companies its also important for a manager to be prepared for this eventuality as the manager will be asked to make cuts as the business and market change requiring you to let people go unexpectedly. This has happened to me several times as well. While those in these more temporary positions also realize that it can happen, it’s not easy. Often it’s the first place that feels the cuts as it’s easier for companies to release contractors and vendors than FTEs.
As a manger your job during this difficult time is to focus on business continuity and how does your part of the business go on after a layoff because unless the company is closing the doors the Monday after the layoff, life will go on. You’ll need to decide, who’s critical, who’s not. You’ll need to assess across multiple levels on your team. Often the quick answer is to remove the under performers – yes, this will work to a point but then what? Unless the impact to your team is very small you will need to decide who else will go. A really tough decision unless you’ve prepared in advance. No one likes to think of it this way but if your ship (company) is sinking, who can you keep? It’s a negative mindset but again unless you’re prepared you’ll find yourself scrambling and making decisions you may later regret because you hadn’t had enough time to really think it through.
Hence the lifeboat drill. Thinking through this scenario ahead of time is necessary to ensure that you have really taken the time to think through the problem and prepare for a new future. Some of things to consider. Which of your team members are subject matter experts for critical parts of your business. You may have to break your functional area into sections and identify coverage and knowledge. It isn’t always the most senior people who you’ll keep, it’s more of a value to the team. Coverage is critical so ensuring that you have people who know your most important areas. Keeping this in mind will enable you to be objective about your needs and reduce the emotion of the difficult conversations you’ll need to have.
As a engineer, how do you ensure you’re in the lifeboat? First recognize that sometimes it just isn’t possible if the reductions are large enough, it might be your entire business area that is let go. Despite that you should always have a good or great working relationship with your manager. Understand what business problems are critical to your area, work to become the SME in that area. Work hard to be the go to person for critical work. Be flexible whenever possible as outcomes and business goals may change over time. Become invaluable. If you think you may be affected don’t wait, update your resume, keep your professional connnections alive starting today.
These are difficult times. They are never easy, from those who are affected to those who have to deliver the news. Just remember our field is cyclic, there will be highs and lows in staffing and life will go on. Preparing is the critical step to take before it’s needed.
