Ethical Layoffs: Is There Really a Way?

“What if the answer isn't about making layoffs kinder, but about giving people the options and stability to survive them?”

The other day I saw a painfully relevant post on LinkedIn asking the question, “…how can you ethically lay people off?”, framing layoffs as simply a standard of business in America. The hook, the question, got me. I clicked to read more. I was expecting to find some radical idea, but what I found was the person didn’t have an answer, and from the comments, no one did. I was disappointed, not in that there wasn’t an answer, but in the fact that I had believed there could be a way to ethically strip someone of their livelihood. And while the answer is, there is no answer, the gap it exposed may be a glimpse into the solution.

I've always struggled with injustices, and my brain often tries to find a way around them, a way to soften the blow or to work within the existing frameworks to get to something more just. So, this gap got me thinking. What does someone in that scenario actually need? What about being laid off is so jarring? Of course there is the grief of losing the future you thought you would have, the hope, the financial stability to travel, to do the things you love. But there are also immediate and often dire consequences in America, and many other countries, when you lose your income. If you have no savings, or no severance, which many people don’t for reasons beyond their control, you can lose your housing, you can lose access to healthcare, to the internet, to heat, to electricity. And for people who are already marginalized, the consequences compound. Losing the stability of employment can expose people to greater threats of discrimination, profiling, and violence. But, it’s just a part of doing business, right?

That is an answer I cannot accept. But outside of completely overhauling power structures that have existed for hundreds of years, it seems hard to believe there is another way. When we look at the facts, as any good therapist would tell you to do, employers can do something. They are not bound to operate in exactly the way they are now. In many cases, the way they operate actually benefits no one, including their own business. What if we look at the foundational reason layoffs strip someone of those basic needs? It’s because the current system leaves people solely dependent on a single entity for all of their basic needs, and that entity can drop you at any time, for any reason. There is of course the argument for universal healthcare, which I fully believe should exist, but if we talk right now, it doesn’t. And we need actionable steps, right now.

So what do we do? And with that question, a snippet from a recent job posting I looked at came to mind. As part of their benefits package it read “Healthcare, or healthcare stipend if you choose to decline employer coverage”. It felt profound, not because of the gesture itself. That seems like common sense. What struck me was the reframing: instead of holding the threat of survival over employees' heads, this company was giving them options. Options. Is it really that simple? I think it is. We begin to decentralize, employers give people options, and the flexibility to build a safety net that could support them through a layoff. And while I think doing this would require an immense amount of conversation with a diverse group of people to ensure an equitable path forward, what if we played with the idea?

What if you could hold multiple jobs at once without ramifications?

What if each of those employers offered you a healthcare stipend, full time or not?

What if success at work was measured by outcomes rather than by the amount of time spent there?

With those small changes you’ve given people the ability to build a diversified income that can stabilize them in times of change, the ability to build diverse skillsets that prepare them for a workforce AI is actively reshaping, access to a reduced cost of healthcare, and the ability to build a life they can thrive in. I don’t need to quote the endless data points on how much more productive employees are when they feel valued, and have the time to tend to their needs. Sure, there would be an adjustment period and some people would abuse it just the way they abuse and manipulate the system now. But the truth is, if the system were better, most wouldn’t need to.

Let’s do what we can, right now, with what we have. Let’s advocate for businesses making change where they can. Let’s encourage people to find the gaps, to talk about them, to talk about what small changes could have major impacts. In martial arts they teach you about pressure points, areas on the body where even light pressure from a small person can bring a much larger person to their knees. Let’s find the pressure points.

Author Bio:

Brittany Beland is a digital experience strategist and visual artist based in Vermont. She spent nearly a decade leading brand activation and digital merchandising for outdoor brands including Burton Snowboards. See her work at brittanyleebeland.com.