sromley's picture Submitted by sromley on
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Management and Leadership

So, I was on a conference call today where the Parent of the company I work for notified us they are shutting down our division.  Most people will be laid off as of the end of February.

I run the operations side, and have outstanding deliverables to several key customers that run through the end of May 2010.  My team is being offered reasonable retention bonuses and severance packages to stay on through June 2010.  I believe I can convince most of them to stay.

Part of me says convince them to stay; another part says start your search and get the heck out of Dodge.  Who has been through something like this, what did you do, and how did it turn out for you?  What would you do differently next time (if it ever happens).

 

Thanks for any input.  BTW, if someone is looking for a great operations manager in for profit education, drop me an email!

 

 

jhack's picture
Submitted by jhack on Wednesday January 6th, 2010 3:57 pm

Ask them to stay, and recommend that they begin their search.  Same as you, of course!  

You can even help them by pointing to the resume and other advice here at MT.  

They are going to search anyway.  This isn't really under your control.  Many will stick around for the bonus, others won't.   

John Hack

bffranklin's picture
Training Badge
Submitted by bffranklin on Wednesday January 6th, 2010 4:14 pm

I would take another listen to the How to Resign set of casts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I'd suggest listening to them with the distinct idea of mandating that your team begin documenting items necessary for transition regardless of if they stay on til the end or not.  This serves as a contingency plan for you, and helps them to feel better about leaving when opportunities arise.  And I imagine it would make quite an accomplishment to complete delivery in spite of your team leaving throughout the process.

 

mtietel's picture
Training Badge
Submitted by mtietel on Wednesday January 6th, 2010 11:14 pm

I've been through something like this... a couple of times.

As John said, continue to perform and start looking.  You can't make them stay, so ask your people to stay and recommend they start looking.  The first time, I stuck around for the bonus and ended up getting extended several times with an additional bonus for each extension.  When we finally were done over a year later, I got an even nicer severance package.  Also, it was during a serious downturn (1989/90) locally and by then things had started to turn around.  As a result I  wasn't out of work very long.

BFFranklin's suggestion is also excellent - that's the one thing I wish I'd known about then.