Is there a good way to deliver bad news in the office?
Being laid off is undoubtedly tragic. But it’s also hard for those who have to do the dirty job of firing people
Earlier this month, multinational corporation and technology conglomerate Microsoft laid off 6,000 employees, about 3% of its workforce, in a move to streamline and optimise its functions. While the decision must have hit many, it wasn’t unexpected. In April, Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer of Microsoft, had announced that the global behemoth now relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to write as much as 30% of codes in some of its projects. It seemed like a preamble to the drastic measures taken a month later.
Ironically, among those affected by the layoffs was Gabriela de Queiroz, the director of AI at the company, who took the blow on the chin with grace.
In a post on professional networking platform LinkedIn, de Queiroz expressed her sadness at the situation, while admitting that “These days, no matter how hard you work… none of that makes you immune to restructuring."
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Not everyone was as optimistic or controlled as de Queiroz. In a viral post on social media platform Reddit, an anonymous person claiming to be the wife of an unnamed Microsoft employee who had worked there for 25 years, wrote about his unimpeachable work ethic—a man with autism and multiple sclerosis, who routinely pulled off long workdays, never entirely stopped working even on vacations, and seldom called in sick.
The AI Takeover
None of these values, lauded as a sign of loyalty to the employer, matter in the face of hard business decisions. It is difficult to find the exact number of layoffs worldwide since the outbreak of covid-19 five years ago but, for scale, 167,000 techies were laid off in one quarter in 2023, according to data released by Statista.
Since tech mogul Elon Musk took charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the US, there have been 602,493 layoffs in 2025, reports Forbes—an 87% increase from the same period last year. Nearly half of these jobs were made redundant due to some action initiated by DOGE.
Most forecasts indicate that this trend will continue, with greater incursion of AI into spheres that were dependent on human skills, leaving an outsized impact on the morale of professionals, who left high and dry, or teetering on the edge, vulnerable to being fired any day.
Collateral Damage
Losing a job sucks. There’s no two ways about it, unless it was the one push you needed to look for better growth opportunities for yourself or release yourself from a toxic boss.
But no less difficult is the deal for those who have the task of communicating the bad news. The middle managers and human resources (HR) executives who have to be the bearers of bad news become the collateral damage in the process.
It’s one thing to let go of an employee who had been underperforming in spite of warnings and performance improvement plans (PIPs). But to have to get rid of a person simply because the company made poor business decisions is even worse. Such a move diminishes the employee to a mere number, their value quantifiable only in terms of cost to the company.
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New Delhi-based HR expert, consultant and trainer Shilpa Singh says, “Even if an employee is being laid off for all the right reasons, it is a sickening feeling for the one who has to give the news to them."
In the 25-odd years she has spent in the corporate world, each such conversation has remained as challenging as the first one. “I’ve always had sleepless nights before such a meeting, with imaginary conversations running through my head," she says.
In an episode of the Briefings Podcast, Doug Charles, president at Korn Ferry, a global organizational consulting and executive hiring firm, says it’s best not to indulge in small talk when it comes to delivering unpleasant news.
Also, sending out a memo is usually a bad idea, as it can be read out of context and misinterpreted.
Brian Chesky, the chief executive officer of vacational rental company AirBnB, made a blunder when he sent out an insensitively worded mass layoff letter to his employees in 2020.
Compassion Counts
When you are communicating the news of termination to an employee, you have to be prepared for any scenario—anger, emotional breakdown, or even in the odd instance, relief to have finally found a way out of an unhappy job.
“It’s important to acknowledge the fact that the person will be upset," Singh says.
Some organisations have an outplacement process which facilitates connections between their outgoing employees and talent acquisition executives. But such an offer may not always land well, especially with someone smarting from the injustice of what was done to them.
“Try not to take their reaction at face value, give them the option to come back to you later should they wish to," Singh says. “Instead, offer them your skillset in case they ask for your help. You could review their CV, put them in touch with recruiters from your network, or simply listen to their outpouring if that’s what they want." Let them take the time they need to process the information.
Compassion can be expressed even through small gestures. HR leaders and managers, for instance, could check with the leadership for any room for play.
“Find out if you can extend the notice period by a month or allow the employee to take time off to appear for job interviews while they are serving notice," says Singh.
As an HR executive or middle manager, you are often called upon to act as a buffer between employees and middle management. That’s why people management is often the hardest part of any job, much harder than the targets you have to meet.
Work Vibes is a fortnightly column on ideas to help you thrive at what you do.
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