Staying motivated at work during a layoff

This morning, while walking my puppy, I tried to get motivated for work. Monday morning are always a bit though as I always wish the week-end would last more than 2 days. Even though it did last 3 days this time as the 1st of November (last Friday) was a bank holiday in France. But still, Monday morning and all that (you can picture one of the numerous Monday meme out there)… Anyway, Mondays are not the purpose of this post…

The company I work for has being going through some “big” layoff for the past month. I was lucky to not get affected by it but my team and the teams I’m working the more closely with were. I can’t (and don’t want to) go into details here about the layoff and teams structure though.

I’m sad about many colleagues being asked to go (maybe not all :P), some of them being such great people, some of them being so good at their job, some being both. Of course, I don’t want to compare my grief with theirs. Their life is severly impacted and even though they should all get a good severance package, they still need to find a new gig (more or less) fast while I’m “safe”.

But going through these events for people staying is still rough, as it means:

• See people you like go
• Be in smaller team where you are ask to do the same (or more) with less
• Wonder about the company situation and future
• Think about your own work future

And more.

All those points do not help with the motivation level. Talking to other “safe” colleagues, I know I’m not the only one having those thoughts. And definitely not the only one struggling more than the usual “I’d rather do X instead of working” thoughts in the morning or during the day.

That’s now the main job of the exec and leadership teams to make sure people understand better the vision and future, finding ways to keep people motivated and energized for the “next steps”. So far I don’t think they’ve done a great job at it, but I’m also concious that they can’t be fully opened and transparent for now as impacted people have not all left the company yet.

Anyway, I wish all the best to all the great folks who left (or will leave soon) the company! and as US folks would say, « Onwards and upwards »… But for now it is a bit harder even though there is more to do, but we’ll get through it!