I’ve heard that managers don't have input in layoff decisions. Does anyone know who actually decides who gets cut? Is it a Director, VP or is it HR, Finance, or someone else? If manager input isn’t used, what specific criteria do they rely on? Please share if you have firsthand experience.
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Reposted from someone else's thread - very informative:
https://youtu.be/Z8N5N1kYo6w?si=n9EDBY3mRJU06A0H
Director and sr director call the shots on who
goes.
I have never seen any manager come out and say"yeh, such and such was ranked low by me, so they got picked". It's the only plausible reason. ICs are ranked by either job function or performance and that is what the decision makers use.
@b6 Yep. They rush to say it was out of their hands... Bull. As long as they're not the target themselves who cares.
My manager was still sending an email asking vendor to include me in next week on site meeting just 2 hours before my 1:1 with my senior director. I believe my layoff was decided by my senior director with input from HR.
Sometimes managers will stack rank. Sometimes they use performance reviews. Sometimes they go by function within the team. Lots of ways it can play out with varying degrees of input from the direct manager. They get what information they want from the manager. But the decision is always multiple steps up the ladder.
You should still hold your managers and above accountable. They are cowards. They had said nothing for years (think 2020) and that is why we are where we are.
@OP My manager was told to rate his people. The Sr. Director made the decision.
If managers and directors have nothing to do with it why do they get so defensive? Now to the point they are posting BS threads to try and bury this one.
@ag This seems mostly correct. In some cases I think they’ve just looked at an org chart and made a guess.
@aj this is bs. There is no official ranking order that directors and managers have. Stop spreading this sh-t.
It is decided by how who you report to ranks you. Directors and Managers don't know who is getting laid off; but they definitely know the ranking order of their direct reports.
Office politics at its finest
@SirWinnie.
Base on my limited understanding leadership gives the numbers to Sr Director and they execute them. They send their decision back to HR. Now, HR can give a suggestion on how to decide and 1 way I have heard a ranking system. Here is an example let's say you have 4 engineers you know all of them do good work. The best method here would be use a ranking system base on what value they provide and whoever is in 4th probably will get rift this is not all cases but 1 method that has been used by workplace reduction
I don't know if this is the case now, but when I was laid off in '23 my manager didn't know who was being let go. Our Sr. Director (Visual Merchandising) made all the decisions on who was kept vs let-go based on a directive of reducing her head-count by a percentage, 20% IIRC. I assume that percentage was given by her superiors.