There there, have a cup of tea

 When I hear the phrase, as I have many a time, 'let people go' or variations thereof I am inclined to initially fall into the trap that was meant to fallen into when first a psychologist working for a marketing team doing some work for an Human Resources department came up with those three simple words as a slogan to replace 'fired' or 'axed' or 'terminated' or 'sacked'. 

In those three little words. or thereabouts and the variations thereof such as 'let you go' etc, there is supposed to be instilled a kindness. It is not that the recipient of being 'let go' has suddenly had a life destroying axe fall upon their neck ending all hope of future. It is instead supposed to instill that you are released from your shackles of servitude that bound you unwillingly and unhappily to a desk or a counter or a phone or a series of doorsteps and, having been let go, now, you can truly achieve your purpose in life. 

Because, by letting you go, you have been released into the world to be happy and achieve all the things you wanted to achieve but never could because of the dependence that developed between you and your employer that now, as you are being set free, is almost being framed as though it was not some mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship after all, but more of a relationship between a drug dealer and a addict. 

So what had previously been framed as a wonderful circular relationship where one hand washes the other and each party prospers as a result of the relationship, now, it is framed as actually a coercive and unpleasant relationship which was definitely not in your best interest and so, now that you are being let go. you are free. Phew, what a relief!

It would be wonderful to think that this were so. Indeed the world is awash with stories of individuals that have been freed from the shackles of 9-5 employment and have gone on to much greater personal and/or financial success. And that entrepreneurship is a truly wonderful thing and the more the world has of such enterprising self starting entrepreneurs, the better the world will be. Probably.

No doubt some of those successful individuals having, perhaps, been 'let go' at some point before which gave them the jolt required to start their own enterprise, some of them might now have their own employees, and some of them might now find themselves in the unenviable, assuming they are not sadists, or delusional, position of having the boot on the other foot, so to speak. 

That is, they are now going to have to 'let people go'. One can only hope that, if they have been the other side of the desk, they'll have some empathy with those flying free of their deadly embrace.

But, because there is always a but. Not everybody has that entrepreneurial spirit or drive. I'd venture as much as to say, the vast majority of human beings do not have that ability to either trade on their knowledge or develop something that they can take to a willing and waiting market from writing a book to making hand cast, sweet smelling, pure organic beeswax candles. On the contrary, they need the shackles of secure paid employment. Secure, of course being relative. 

The criminality of zero hours contracts is already apparent to any official that dares to take a look at new signings for benefits. That number will only grow in the coming weeks and months. Perhaps a minister for employment should try the following mantra. First they came for the zero hours contracts, and I said nothing, then they came for the furloughed employees, and I said nothing... that kind of thing, I'm sure you get the gist!

I remember in more than one organization I have worked at that there was a feeling of family and people got up each day, left one family and came into the office to join with their other family. 

Many a behavioral scientist attached to an HR department reached a state of heady orgasm just dreaming of having a workplace that felt so attached. The benefits it brings to an organisation are immense and the costs can be reasonable for rich rewards. 

After all, if you feel that you are with family you have loyalty and responsibility and many good feelings and duties that one might attach to a family unit are transferred to this work family. But it is an illusion.

I was impressed once by a CEO of a business I worked for that sat in front of collection of employees and reminded them that work was just work and that when one day they left the business the business would not collapse it would still be there and would continue going long after all the people that were in the room were gone or dead! 

It did impress me at the time. It did not impress me as I thought about it later. Or at least it did, but not for the same reason. The same CEO had for more than a decade previously been happy to let the culture of family build within the organisation, in fact, on many an occasion he referred directly to 'the family' and was keen to promote the benefits of this cozy familial environment. 

What changed in my impression was, he was a master of the sales pitch. When staying was beneficial to the business, he promoted the surrogate family life, when times were getting tough, then slapping people from their daydreams to wake up and realise this was just business and that family was what existed outside not inside, then that was what he was selling today! 

So whilst I had first been gullibly impressed with his honesty, now I was sanguinely impressed with his cynicism!

However much people might like the family environment of the business they work in, they need always to remember that it is not a loving caring family environment that will be there through good times and bad. It will be there through good times... 

And all those wonderful family members inside the business, well, some of them might shed a tear or two with you when your name is called and you find that you have been freed from the shackles of oppression but you will likely find that most of them will slowly evaporate from your life once you have, like Elvis, left the building, except of course those that you have at some point transferred from business family to real extended family. 

While I'm thinking about behavioural psychologists and their sticky fingers. HR used to be Personnel department. Frankly Human Resources is hardly a step up from Personnel Department, if anything it is a retrograde step. I mean, one minute you are a Person, now you are a Resource! 

It is, I guess, at least more honest about the actual relationship! But those tricky little psychologists, unhappy that you might not me all smiley about being a Resource have had a field day with the department name. I have seen such joys as People Resource Centre (slightly better), Talent Management (now you're talking) or People Experience (er, I don't even understand!) What's key in this is, whatever the name of the department, they'll have an almost unhealthy relationship with the legal department and whatever the name, you'll recognise them for the cloven footed beast that they are when you find they are the ones letting you go.

I could only laugh (an internalised manic laugh) when I heard anyone suggest that 'HR won't allow that' when a grievance was being perpetrated by a manager over his dominion. I would laugh because I too once was that naive to believe that HR was an arbiter, a fair judge that would sit in judgement on all matters relating to the business and the employees and make a ruling for or against one side or the other. Sadly, HR is but a tool of the business. It is there only at the magnanimity of the business. Should HR ever cross the business though, it will find its Resources being 'let go'! And I know of at least one company director that proposed the HR department be axed in its entirety, which took some gall considering the HR Director was sat within a metre of him when he suggested it.

Did I have a point to all this? Unlikely! It just struck me today as I listened to a woman who was now 'let go' who had realised that, at this moment in time, her whole world was imploding. All of those things that get largely taken for granted; the mortgage the mobile phone contract, the heating, the kids new shoes, the vets bills, the car insurance, next holiday when holidays are allowed again... suddenly, they are not so granted, they are very much un-granted and life suddenly seems a rather cold and lonely place. 

Such things will pass just as a junkie can go through withdrawal and find a more sunny life on the other side, that is the human spirit. But some don't make it through to the other side and it is not their fault and I feel kinda sad for them because I know what it feels like. 

It would be nice to imagine a world where businesses that feel like family really act like family, in a good way. of course. 

Imagine that you work for one of these businesses that have such attributes that it feels as though you are with family and you hear those fateful words that the business is going to have to 'let you go'! But instead of the usual tears and sympathy with words about how we'll always stay in touch followed by a short period of mourning and then less and less actual contact, the family pulls together and finds solutions to help the individuals that find themselves 'let go'. 

By that I mean the surrogate family uses its combined intelligence, experience and network of contacts to aid the 'released' to find a way to keep working, keep earning and keep going. 

It could be that the network is key in that there are other businesses that just happen to be looking for a web designer or security person at the same point as the 'family' is forced to 'release' one and so one could help secure a new role for an outcast. 

Alternatively, and given the amount of people about to find themselves free to do with their lives the things they have always wanted to do but were too tied to the organisation to actually do, this brains trust of a surrogate family might pool their group intelligence and propose and assist in helping the released individuals to develop a new career working for themselves. 

Not for the family to do the work but for the family to do what families do best (or so I am led to believe...) which is to provide the support structure for the fledgling leaving the family nest. Maybe such family oriented businesses exist and maybe they have helped ex-employees find a myriad new careers and opportunities. Sadly I have only ever witnessed the tea and sympathy type business families. 

Fortunately the majority of people I have known who have found themselves 'let go' (and by now that number is three digits long!) have found new employment, new opportunities and new horizons, which is good. Some, unfortunately, have not been so lucky, some have found themselves thrust into debt and depression, most of them have also come back from these setbacks, but not all of them have or do. 

And the numbers that I am aware of are hugely positively skewed because of the sectors I have worked in and the geographical location. 

But that is certainly not the case in, for example, engineering in the midlands. There will be a number, quite a large number I suspect, who will find themselves 'let go' through no fault of their own and might never work again in their, so called, working life. 

That might sound overly pessimistic but I have lived through downturns before and I have seen the results, I can still see them today. I can travel to mining towns or steel cities or former car production areas of the country where people made redundant (there was no letting go back then!) in the 80s are still not working or never worked another day from when their job disappeared until the day they retired and/or died. 

New businesses have moved into some of these areas but it tends to be a slow process and one that only happens when government succums and incentivises a call centre or a warehouse to open up in these areas of poverty and low wages supplying more low wages but at least something, although it'll be on a zero hours contract so job security is non-existent and with low job security comes all manner of inconveniences. The ability to get credit, or at least credit one reasonable terms, is difficult to say the least and that affects everything, including, circuitously, the ability to stay in work. 

But heh, that's a cycle we seem unable or unwilling to break free from. Maybe in a year I will reevaluate this post and say how wrong I was and how wonderfully the country has handled the coming tsunami of job losses. 

Perhaps, but it seems really unlikely given the way the world is following this first blast of Covid and that combined with a no deal Brexit, I cannot see how there will be anything positive to say in a years time. 

But who knows, strange things happen at sea, as they say!