Healing the Wounds: Overcoming the Trauma of Layoffs and Revitalizing Downsized Organizations

14.4. Learnings and Implications

I have written about layoff survivor sickness as the symptom and unhealthy dependence as the disease. The phenomena are linked, and we must work on both halves of the equation simultaneously. The depth and toxicity of layoff survivor sickness is not well understood, and it is often denied. Thus, I devoted the first six chapters to deepening our understanding of the pathology and debilitating nature of survivor symptoms.

The next four chapters examined methods of intervention. I described a model with four levels—the first two dealing with symptomatic relief and the last two with root causes. The final four chapters focused on leadership approaches and competencies necessary to ensure organizational sustainability ...