How do I deal with carrying out something that is against my principles?

[dontagreewithit]

I am a name changer, as some of this is sensitive information that isn't out in the public domain yet.

I am a senior manager in a relatively small organisation (around 100 employees across 3 sites). The MD and one of the other 2 board members are the kind of people who just want things "done now" and done "my way" and have little regard for the legalities and humanity of dealing with the people they employ.

It has been decided that we need to make around 10 support staff redundant across 2 of the sites. In itself, I don't have an issue with this, commercially it makes sense.

However, they are proposing to carry out the whole redundancy process across 4 days next week, start to finish. I understand that this is just within the confines of the law (as there are less than 20 people being made redundant), but I have a big issue with carrying out the process so quickly and brutally. We have people on holiday next week, people who only work certain days of the week, and the process has no give in it to accommodate these people. There is no time available for the people involved to "draw breath", prepare their CVs etc etc. Monday = normal day, Thursday = goodbye.

I have expressed my feelings about this very strongly to the board, however, they are determined to go ahead, despite the possible consequences, which I think will be massive demotivation of the people who are left, lack of any trust in senior management (which is already severely lacking), and an exodus of those people who we want to keep as soon as they can find alternative employment,

I am actively looking for another job, have applied for a couple, but I can't afford to resign without a job to go to. If I could, I would.

So my question is, how do I keep my credibility with the staff I manage while having to implement this process and not agreeing with it at all? How do I maintain my sanity?

First of all it's not your decision, so try not to take on the weight of responsibility. You have identified that this is within the law. Employees are entitled to notice and presumably your organisation will honour that. There must be a business reason for this, whether you support it or not.

You've made your feelings clear to management, now a decision has been made. You need to accept it and implement it in the most considerate way you can and support your team. If you don't want to, then you can resign but you say that's not an option, so your hands are tied. I don't envy you.

It's not my decision, but I have to implement it professionally and I am having a massive conflict between remaining professional, taking on the responsibilities of my role and what I feel to be the injustice and inhumanity in the way it's being done.

I guess I hate the fact that people will think I agree with this, and because I am professional, I can't tell them that I don't.

That's management for you though.

But is it like this everywhere? How depressing.

I've had managing directors sobbing on the telephone to me because they are having to make redundancies. It's not the same everywhere, but it's tough times at the moment.

The process should be flexible enough to accommodate part timers though, you risk a discrimination claim if you don't consult properly with them.

It is very depressing and I have had to be involved in similar although I'm not management and only have to prep paperwork and take minutes so it's easier for me.

I don't agree with the way decisions are made but I do need my job so I have to deal with it.

There is no flexibility in the process, it HAS to be done by the end of Thursday. I guess we will have to pay people to come in on their days off - if they have child care issues, or other things planned, then I don't know what is going to happen.

I realise that making people redundant / sacking people / disciplining people / having difficult conversations with people is part of my job, and I have to suck it up. When the proper routes have been followed, I have no problem with that (well, I do, but I am able to justify it in my head).

Having to do things in a rush and get it "over with" by a certain date because the group MD is fed up with having to think about it now and wants to move on to the next thing is hard to swallow. Of course, he won't be involved in any of it...

Do you have a HR dept? I only ask because I had to be involved in making a part time role redundent recently and we could only arrange 1st, 2nd and final meetings for the days they were due to work.

We have one person who is dealing with HR. She has some experience, but it isn't her real speciality. She is being advised by an employment lawyer (who has basically said that what we plan to do is just legal, but he would never advise anyone to do it this way).

If the MD had his way, we would just bung everyone a couple of hundred pounds and tell them to go away. He feels he is really being put out to have to follow the proposed process. He seems to think he is beyond the law.

I was going to say I'd be a bit concerned about the risk of a discrimination claim if you don't consult with part timers on the days they'd usually work. But again, you're not the decision maker.

MD has had all of the risks pointed out and thinks it's worth the gamble.

Just not the way I like to deal with people, I need to be able to sleep easy at night. Perhaps I was just not born to be a hard-nosed business person.

You say you are quite senior. Do you know what's driving the redundancies? Are you sharing the reasons with staff? It's not going to be for no reason, it must be a commercial decision. It may be the only way a major shareholder or lender will be motivated to keep equity in the business, so it might be essential to actually stay afloat.

It's because the business is spending more money than it has coming in. Simple as that. There is a history of little to no financial control, which has led to everything coming to a head now. Costs have to be reduce to ensure the business stays afloat.

I will say it again, I'm not naive, I understand how business works, I know that in a senior role you have to do things that are difficult & make tough decisions. I would just like to think we could do it with some humanity & not see it as a dreadful chore to be got out of the way as quickly as possible.

I totally agree especially as there is a genuine reason behind the decision. It would taste a lot better if you were allowed to be honest with the staff and give them time to take in the decision.

We give a week inbetween 3 staged meetings which gives the employee time to gather their reasonings as to why it shouldn't be them.
Do you have other positions within the company to offer them?

No other positions to offer them.

Just been talking to the HR woman & she is absolutely demoralised. She predicts the same as me - once the process is over we will have a steady stream of people handing their notice in. So the good people we are keeping will be gone.

Just depressing....

And the company MDs are very keen to get it over with in one week - they think it will make it "less painful" for everyone. They seem to lack the ability to see it from anyone else's point of view. No empathy.

And then one of them will literally leave the meetings where people will be told they no longer have a job and jet off to ski for a week. Leaving me to pick up the pieces on the Monday.

Very difficult for you, you have my sympathy.

It may work well to book a team meeting for staff that are not involved in the redundancy meetings as soon as the first redundancy meeting is held (or at the same time) to reasure staff that this is a one off, needed measure to keep the business afloat?

Have HR stressed the likely fall out of rushing the process and the higher chance of appeals which could then take longer than doing the process over the 3 weeks?

HR have stressed all of the possible issues, but the board think its a gamble worth taking. Doing it over 3 weeks was never an option for them. I hoped I could persuade them to do it over 2 weeks, and start once the company MD has come back from his holiday, to lessen the perception of "I'm alright, Jack" that his holiday is going to give. They were simply not interested.

Communication reassuring other staff is planned, however, there was a similar (haphazard) process carried out last October with a different group of staff & everyone was reassured then that no other jobs were at risk etc, etc. This will kill off what small amount of trust there was for the board.

Are you actively looking for new employment? If cuts were made in Oct and now in Feb it sounds like there is some serious back peddling and covering up going on

I think all you can do is execute this with sensitivity and to the best of your ability and keep looking for another job. I'm sorry you're going through this.

Away - you have summed up exactly what I have decided is the only way for me to proceed.

The whole thing is a mess and a nightmare. Next week is going to be absolutely horrible.

If it's any consolation, this will be an excellent example for you to use in response to a scenario based interview question - it will demonstrate your qualities, particularly your professionalism.

I was made redundant, ok it was VR but still I also had staff going through tge process. All you can do is be professional and as empathetic as possible. You might like to put your objections in writing if you haven't already.

I really don't think anyone will truly think this is down to you, they will know who has done this.