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

Chapter 8. Level Two: Facilitate the Necessary Grieving

"Some of the people are ushered out of here coldly, like it's all over and you can't even say good-bye to your friends. They come in here and clean off their desks at night. All of a sudden, the desk is clear; it's gone. They've disappeared."

In the best of times, organizations don't like the word grieving. It sounds wimpy, whiny, too much from the pop psychology self-help books, and to suggest its necessity is perceived as an indictment on the myth of a rational, logical, emotion-free, business-only organizational culture. In times of organizational trauma, organizationally sanctioned ...