Work place merge, save yourself or pass along critical info to your team?

If I intended to stay with the company I would have to be part of the process of the downsizing. That’s just being part of management. While giving subtle hints to employees is pretty easy to do, we have to remember that our and their jobs are not entitlements; we work at the pleasure of our employers. We all have to understand and be somewhat prepared for the uncertainty of the future with respect to employment. No one goes to work for a company planning and expecting to work there 40 years. Those days are gone.

In most any merger situation I have seen…way too stuff is in flux and any employee betting outside anything other than a sure thing is taking chances I or you have no control over. Since I was cautioned over saying anything or else, I would keep my mouth shut.

@perspicacious very well said. Your answer struck a chord in me. We had better wake up and smell the coffee. Those days are gone and boy are we going to long for them!

As long as you are taking a paycheck from the company, you have the responsibility of carrying the company’s interests forward, which means guarding your tongue.

In truth, you don’t know which employees will be laid off or how many so you don’t have nay real news to share with your co-workers.

All spreading rumors does is make people feel worse.

I think that the best policy is to provide employees with as much information as you can give them. They will do their jobs better that way. It doesn’t matter if layoffs are rumors or facts, people will know that it is a possibility—an imminent possibility.

My loyalty is to living as ethically as I know how. If I disagree with my employer about an ethical issue, I’m going to call them on it and I’m going to do what I think is right. If I get fired, so be it. The ethical thing to do, in my opinion, is to tell the employees what is happening.

I’m really surprised at the number of people here saying that the employer calls the shots because they pay your salary. Haven’t we seen example after of example of people doing what they are told no matter how unethical it is, and haven’t we seen what happens?

Just because we sell our skills doesn’t mean we sell our souls.

@ZEPHYRA—That’s right. I did go to work with that expectation and managed to stay 30 years before retiring. It’s just not the nature of employment anymore.

@wundayatta The employer does call the shots. Management’s job is to manage the business and the work force. I never squelched rumors that were true; I simply did not validate them. You are right you don’t leave your ethics at the door when you go to work. But, the company is there to make a profit, and the employees are there to earn a paycheck.

It’s never a good idea to tell someone else’s secrets, especially if they’re labled “corporate”. Most comapnies frown on that, and generally have a section in the employee handbook covering it specifically.

@perspicacious Everything you say is true. However, employees also have to live with themselves, and live within the law. A paycheck is not the be-all and end-all of life. There are other ways to make a living. You do not have to support corporate policies that you think are wrong.

@wundayatta —True. You can always resign.

@perspicacious And employers do respond to that (resignations). If they can’t get employees of the quality they need because of corporate policies, they mostly will change those policies. The slow move towards flextime is an example of that.

@wundayatta I would never do anything that I thought was unethical. What I think is unethical in this case is to repeat information that I was given in the course of my work that is not mine to repeat to those not authorized to have that information.

It is this specific situation that I was responding to. When there is a merger, everything is in flux. Who will keep their jobs and who will lose them is also very much in flux. Adding in flux information to the rumor mill does not do anybody any good and does adversely affect productivity.

@marinelife We disagree about that. I think that people should be told what is happening so they can make their choices with as much information as possible. I think that in these situations, rumors abound, so real information is better. When rumors abound, productivity goes down, I think. I think that sharing this information would result in lower productivity, too, so that’s a wash. Anyway, in the situation described, I would want my employees to know, even if it means I get called on the carpet or fired.

Of course, that’s easy for me to say, since I would never be in such a position. I think the longest I’ve worked for a profit making organization since I was in college is one month. That did not go over well.