4.10. Lack of Reciprocal Commitment

Although some employees expressed a continuing commitment to the organization, no one felt the organization had a reciprocal ongoing commitment to him or her. Some were angry and bitter about the abrupt change:

  • "There seems to be an absolute fundamental change in the company as far as its attitude toward people. People are viewed as commodities. The first reaction to problems is to reduce head count. That fundamental attitude seems to have changed the company. [The change] seems to be permanent." (executive)

  • "I've talked to people, . . . senior executives [who have] been around twenty, twenty-five years, who have been given two minutes total to see their HR rep. So what's come out of all that is people just ...

Get Healing the Wounds: Overcoming the Trauma of Layoffs and Revitalizing Downsized Organizations now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.