As the industry faces more lay offs and the ever looming threat of change hangs over us, what are we doing about focusing on those who didn't lose their jobs?

Redundancies and lay offs are a horrible fact of economic downward shift. The switch from boom to bust is a stark reminder that work is fragile and in today's world we are vulnerable to the political and environmental factors we've seen play out in recent years.  It seems the City may have grown in wealth but the realities of those industries beyond the financial markets simply hasn't felt the same stability & with the Creative Sector being woefully underfunded and mis-valued we're at the whim of these changing factors more than most.

So, as we pay the toll for yet another period of economic change from the pandemic to its unlocking, we are now seeing lay offs across the Creative industry in an unprecedented way and the impact they have leaves a mark on everyone involved. But for some, who have not been laid off, there is still work to be done, projects to deliver and deadlines to be met. When morale is low during periods of change, it's hard to keep standards high and harder still when roles which may have once been there are no longer in the company.  So how do people manage survivors guilt and keep delivering good work? Lets explore ways to survive the uncertainty and continue to support your own wellbeing through the change.

Understanding Survivor's Guilt

At its core, survivor's guilt stems from empathy and the innate human connection we feel towards our colleagues. When redundancies occur, it's natural to question, "Why them and not me?" This question can lead to a spiralling sense of undeserved privilege and an intense loss for that connection. Commonly those left behind worry about their own job security and morale can quickly drop.

The guilt is often compounded by the abrupt nature of redundancies. One day, you're working alongside your team, and the next, you're packing up their desks. The suddenness can create a real sense of injustice and its not uncommon to see a really unsettled workforce who begin to create stories and even conspiracies about your organisation, born totally out of a sense of fear and anxiety.

You might witness people trying to make sense of the new world they find themselves in, creating new narratives after the redundancies that make sense of the redundancies before moving to more positive outcomes and possible personal growth where we recognise how the loss has impacted our self concept and personal identify, Neimeyer, 2000 called this the Meaning Reconstruction Model.  We often witness this process before seeing colleagues rediscover their working mojo and things return to a new status quo.

So what can you do to actively manage and prevent this? First we need to explore what's leading to this kind of behaviour before moving to ways to prevent it. Without first understanding why people respond like this and what you can do to both manage it and potentially prevent it, you may be walking into problems that are avoidable and could be game changing for the industry.

Mental health & the productivity

When changes like this happen there is often a direct relationship to employees mental health, employees may struggle with concentrating on tasks, experience a decline in motivation, and even feel disconnected from their work. This emotional turmoil can hinder productivity and overall job performance, creating a ripple effect that impacts the entire organisation and makes recovery back to something looking like good performance hard to achieve.

When companies don't think about the impact on morale post redundancies, issues can bubble and quite rapidly the culture can begin to show issues.  Emotions may run high and whilst your focus might be on maintaining client relationships, hitting deadlines and re-establishing a new output, for those left behind they can feel unheard and their loyalty may be challenged. But they can also feel overworked.  Your biggest tip is planning, what you do between knowing the redundancies are coming to the time after they are made is all in the planning. Our planning suggestions look like this:

Communication is key: You will need to consider your line managers, and leads and the information they know and understand about the new direction. Ensuring everyone understands as much as you can share and they understand their work load demands, and where you're heading will also provide purpose to those left behind and help them feel the sense of belonging. It will also answer the unasked, such as how will you deliver with a smaller team? Will their jobs be safe? What will happen if work picks up?

Acknowledge the loss: One of the biggest problems we see is the lack of acknowledgement of the change. You may have had months to get used to the idea but for those left behind the news may still be ringing in their ears. Acknowledge their upset and talk about ways you'll manage things together.

Find useful resources: There's a huge amount of information available for mental health, from Safe in Our World, Andy's Man Club, the Samaritans and Mind. But also you'll find useful resources in your EAP or Private Medical Health care if you have these set up.

Plan new ways to connect the team(s): Allow people to talk to share their issues and find ways to regather. Can you have a night out, an afternoon doing team refocusing? Can you find a way as a team to reconnect and be in a space together. Even if the space is virtual, can you create something where the intention is to connect your teams and find new ways of becoming team.

Is it really worth it, it's a bit woo-woo no?

Redundancies are a harsh reality, but they also offer an opportunity for growth and reflection. As organisations and individuals, we must strive to create environments where emotional well-being is prioritised, and where the survivor's guilt is recognised and addressed with compassion and care as well as the changes the redundancies can leave you with. Redundancies need good planning and real commercial thought. We need to move away from reactionary decisions with a short term view and move to a place where the losses use legislation properly. We also need to think about growth when we are booming, in much the same way as applying wellbeing when we're well not when we're in crisis. Through collective effort and understanding, we can turn a challenging situation into a catalyst for positive change.

And perhaps its time to rethink our boom and bust model and look at more resilient working models. Lets face it, the last few years have shown us we can't predict chaos so perhaps the better thing to do is look at what we can control and move to a new workforce plan that factors in more freelancers and more contractors. Its no good saying this won't work in games or other parts of the industry, when the freelance economy is booming and the next generation is set to freelance more than their predecessors. To access true creativity and innovation we have to start thinking about how we do this with our workforce. Its time to change, its time to show up with wellbeing and EDI and its time to break a cycle we can't sustain for the future generations now coming into the workforce.

Interested in hearing how Fresh Seed can help you with your wellbeing and EDI initiatives? Reach out to us using the button below, we'd love to have a chat!