Comments on: Human Resources – Unsung Heroes! http://blog.civilengineeringcentral.com/2009/02/11/human-resources-heroes/ building teams . engineering careers Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:00:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Larry Courtney http://blog.civilengineeringcentral.com/2009/02/11/human-resources-heroes/#comment-233 Larry Courtney Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:40:19 +0000 http://civilengineeringcentral.wordpress.com/?p=760#comment-233 Great blog and unfortunately, very timely. There is no question these are difficult times and difficult actions must be taken ... actions which affect friends, co-workers and just good decent people who deserve better. While we must all, peers and supervisors alike, be sensitive to a comrade who has been laid off, probably the best thing we can give them is direction and getting them focused on future employment. Help them see that now their focus needs to be on the future and what they can do to control it, and not focus on the past. Questioning the past can only lead to disappointment and resentment. All types of emotions can arise in a person as a result of a layoff, but by far the two that must be dealt with by the company is the "why me" and the "fear." There is probably no explanation sufficient to answer the question of "why me?", although management must be prepared to do so. To most people "why me" is a bevy of issues, contributions they have made and past performance that can not easily be directly addressed. The key is to focus the person on where they go from here, even to the point of proving them with a suggested outline of what actions might be best to take and when they should be take them. While these activities may be obvious to the employed, fear, shock and uncertainty about the future can quickly cloud rational linear thought processes. Certainly firms with outplacement services have this issue well covered, but those who don't can help newly laid off staff by helping them form a plan of action for themselves. As we all know, the sooner a laid off employee finds new work, the better off everyone is. Great blog and unfortunately, very timely. There is no question these are difficult times and difficult actions must be taken … actions which affect friends, co-workers and just good decent people who deserve better. While we must all, peers and supervisors alike, be sensitive to a comrade who has been laid off, probably the best thing we can give them is direction and getting them focused on future employment. Help them see that now their focus needs to be on the future and what they can do to control it, and not focus on the past. Questioning the past can only lead to disappointment and resentment.

All types of emotions can arise in a person as a result of a layoff, but by far the two that must be dealt with by the company is the “why me” and the “fear.” There is probably no explanation sufficient to answer the question of “why me?”, although management must be prepared to do so. To most people “why me” is a bevy of issues, contributions they have made and past performance that can not easily be directly addressed. The key is to focus the person on where they go from here, even to the point of proving them with a suggested outline of what actions might be best to take and when they should be take them. While these activities may be obvious to the employed, fear, shock and uncertainty about the future can quickly cloud rational linear thought processes. Certainly firms with outplacement services have this issue well covered, but those who don’t can help newly laid off staff by helping them form a plan of action for themselves. As we all know, the sooner a laid off employee finds new work, the better off everyone is.

]]> By: Lara Shepherd http://blog.civilengineeringcentral.com/2009/02/11/human-resources-heroes/#comment-227 Lara Shepherd Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:39:02 +0000 http://civilengineeringcentral.wordpress.com/?p=760#comment-227 WOW! What a blog...you hit it right on the mark. Here's to those of us still getting up every day, chin up, hope in our hearts, being there for those who have been chosen to go, and being there for those who are still remaining. These are some of the best words and descriptions, telling it like it is. For those of us with a front row seat, I don''t think we could have written it better ourselves. I chose my career to be in HR b/c I wanted to be there for people. And I hope that each person that has been a colleague of mine, feels that they were supported by me. HR isn't just orientation and enrolling EEs in benefits. It runs much deeper, and your comments hit some of the depth right on the nose. WOW! What a blog…you hit it right on the mark. Here’s to those of us still getting up every day, chin up, hope in our hearts, being there for those who have been chosen to go, and being there for those who are still remaining.

These are some of the best words and descriptions, telling it like it is. For those of us with a front row seat, I don”t think we could have written it better ourselves. I chose my career to be in HR b/c I wanted to be there for people. And I hope that each person that has been a colleague of mine, feels that they were supported by me. HR isn’t just orientation and enrolling EEs in benefits. It runs much deeper, and your comments hit some of the depth right on the nose.

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