More often than not, we associate departures, layoffs and exclusion with feelings of being blindsided and anger rather than with terms like “high-performance”, “maturity” and “responsibility”.
This week, I compiled a list of articles that provide another perspective – Why departures, layoffs and exclusion could be beneficial for both the company and employees. This was modelled especially by Netflix who had previously let go of employees who have worked 18 or even 20 years for them. These employees did not pass the “keeper test” (whether a boss would fight to keep a given employee). Netflix explains that this is key to enforcing their culture of “freedom and responsibility” where only highly effective people are kept. Though harsh to some, Netflix continues to fire anyone who does not meet the standard and the company continues to grow exponentially.
Here are five articles sharing insights on the surprising upside of tricky situations:
1. Netflix’s Firing Culture Works for Netflix
This opinion piece, written by Joe Nocera from Bloomberg, sheds some light on why this “firing culture” has worked for Netflix and details their rationale behind some of the more unconventional practices at the company.
2. Research: When Getting Fired Is Good for Your Career
18% of executives reflected in a survey that they had faced what many view as the worst-case scenario – getting fired or laid off. But this study found that: being fired or laid off doesn’t necessarily have catastrophic effects on leaders’ prospects.
The study found that leaders can do some specific things to make sure that a major setback doesn’t become a career-killer. Read on to find out what are 3 things you can do.
3. Netflix lets dozens — sometimes hundreds — of employees examine why someone was fired in ‘postmortem’ meetings and emails
Have you ever attended a meeting or read an email detailing why you were fired? Netflix does exactly that in their “post-mortems”. Seems bold and even, theatrical to some but, read on to find out why Netflix does this anyway.
4. Top tech companies like Netflix and LinkedIn say they have no problem with employees interviewing for other jobs — in fact, they might want to help
Most companies, when told that their employees are leaving, do not respond positively to that news. In fact, employees even lie about why they are late for work or why they look so spiffy to cover up that they are leaving.
But now, a growing number of tech companies say they want to know when their employees are looking at other jobs. And instead of considering the employees traitorous, they’ll sometimes go out of their way to help the employees land those other roles.
Read on to find out why companies like Netflix, G2 Crowd, Jellyvision and Facebook are unfazed by employees leaving and how a company could benefit from such departures.
5. How to Gracefully Exclude Coworkers from Meetings, Emails, and Projects
Whether it’s a meeting, an email thread, or a project team, people need to be excluded from time to time. Being selective frees people up to join more urgent engagements, get creative work done, and stay focused on their most important tasks. How, then, can leaders do this gracefully?
Read on for 3 recommendations on how to graciously exclude your coworkers.
BONUS: STOP SEARCHING FOR YOUR PASSION | TERRI TRESPICIO | TEDXKC
Terri Trespicio was laid off from her job as a editor and radio show host at Martha Stewart. She was devastated, even depressed. But this was also the point that kicked her to question if “What are you passionate about?” was the right question to ask. Candid and inspiring, she chronicles her journey of “failing her way to success” in this TED Talk.
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