Survivor’s Guilt

Hello again to Learning Curve. I recently watched the movie Up in the Air (2009) with George Clooney. I can only but recommend this film and here is the trailer for those who haven’t seen it: 



As Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a downsizing expert the movie demonstrates well how to deliver high impact messages and captures the different reactions of the employees receiving bad news. I thought however that I would like to talk with u about an aspect of the layoff process that often seems to be neglected: Survivors Guilt

The term Survivors Guilt describes an inner conflict that arises in employees that survive a layoff. It is often assumed that those employees should be happy, excited and relieved and while that holds true for some, there are many employees that survive a layoff who react with a combination of anxiety, guilt, anger, stress and depression.

And to be honest this is not too hard to believe. Just take a moment and imagine that half of the colleagues you spent your lunch and coffee breaks with are gone. Your work relationships are heavily influenced by that and we all know that this is an important part of a harmonious and motivated working environment, am I right?

But it is not just the working relationships that can affect you negatively. The question of how all the work is going to get done with so few employees around arises. The prospect of being stretched so thin, possibly beyond your area of expertise may just seem impossible. I remember my mother, being very stressed and upset about exactly this phenomenon when her department was downsizing.

But lets talk a bit more about where this inner conflicted is coming from. Hodgkinson and Stewart (1991: 166) explain that the feeling of guilt can be understood as an unconscious attempt to deny or undo a sense of helplessness.

This helplessness is also associated with the loss of certainty or in psychological terms the loss of faith. I am not talking about religious faith here but about the fact that A follows B, so the faith that life has a certain continuity or predictability. And even though we may deny it, but we all do love our certainties in life: the same coffee shop girl that knows your order as soon as you come in, the same bathroom cubicle or even if it is just your favourite tea mug.

I count myself lucky that I have not yet been in a position to experience Survivors Guilt but I am very curious about it. Hence I would love if you could share your experiences with me if you have ever been exposed to a situation where you survived a layoff and how you felt during this process. Moreover I am curious how your managers tried to accommodate you during this difficult phase?

Thank you all and see you soon, Laura