Letting go of your employees is nothing new, but this has typically been done in-person. Now with COVID-19, you can’t offboard in-person anymore, it must be remote. In this harsh new world where layoffs are inevitable, with unknown futures, what can you do to ensure this is handled as best as possible? About 14 years ago I had to layoff 48 people over the course of two days. At the time, it was the hardest thing I had experienced in my career. It was smack in between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, a good portion of the team was remote, and…

If a mere change in mindset could make the difference between offboarding being a positive vs negative experience, would you do it? The answer, of course, is yes, but we are missing this opportunity in every offboarding by focusing and building the process around the term “severance”. Severance is defined…

There you are sitting across from your coworker. You tell them today is their last day. You tell them why and then you say “I am sorry”. Wait no, you did not practice that part. Now you stumble on your words and you see their face as they mistrust your…

Nobody likes a negative surprise, and a life-changing event like losing a job is the biggest professional shock you could ever receive. Think about how you would feel if surprised by an offboarding meeting out of the blue? Angry to say the least, and you can count on it not…

We all want to woo our potential recruits and nurture our current employees, but how should we treat our past employees? They are an extension of your recruiting network, brand advocates, and become the spokespeople of your culture, yet they are typically ignored. Not only that, many companies pretend they…

Firing someone is an emotional experience and it can take a lot out of you. There is a tendency to think you need to be a robot in order to be successful. …

Everybody makes the decision to leave their job at some point in their career, that’s just life. Reasons can be different, but how you manage your own exit should not. When leaving a company you have to think about your personal brand, reputation, your network, and no matter what the…

We’ve all heard the term “cultural fit”. Typically, a manager says that we need to let a person go because they are not a “cultural fit”. What does it even mean? I say its a worthless statement. At best its ambiguous and at worst it can have discriminatory implications. What…

Good communication is critical in offboarding. There are many conversations to be had and none will be successful if you do not pre-plan how you will execute on them. In my most recent role at Drift, I was continuously learning and two things stuck with me in regard to building…