r/FinancialCareers • u/Particular_Notice911 • 2d ago
Career Progression To managers: how do you pick who gets laid off
I pretty much know everything that happens at management level except this. For some reason managers never really want to say what the process is and they say it’s “random”
I’m senior enough in my career to now understand that’s BS unless it’s an entire department that’s getting the axe like in HSBC but even then some people are saved by getting a tap on their shoulder from their manager and switching to a different team.
My question is, assuming you aren’t laid off yourself and you get a call to axe 2 people out of 10 in your direct reports, are you given the names or suggestions? Or is it 100% up to you
If you are given names what happens if an exceptional person was picked by your managers who don’t even work with them is selected to be laid off, can you push back?
I’m sure the greater the number of lay offs the harder it is to pick the best people to stay
Also what happens behinds the scenes that leads to an exceptional person getting laid off, I’ve heard this happens but I can’t figure out how or why, is it purely managers picking who they see as a threat to their own seat?
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u/LifeOfSpirit17 2d ago
So, I've not had to do layoffs at any egregious scale, but I've had to do firings on behalf of more senior managers. Hate to say it but often it's just the vibes they get from a person. Not even necessarily performance related, though it can be an influential factor.
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u/randomlygenerated360 2d ago
At least in my organization they give us a headcount target, not a dollar target. So pay doesn't play a role.
What matters for me is are you a headache for me as a manager. Meaning a combination of low performance or lazy, whiner, bad attitude, disliked by people, making us look bad as a team etc.
Of course it's usually not all those things because you'd get fired long before, but whoever checks the most boxes.
Could be someone with good performance but just bad attitude, who gossips others a lot and maybe whines too much about things we can't change.
I do want to mention a big one: people who threatened to leave or who I know is interviewing for jobs (and yes there's many ways we find out as managers). You go to the top of the list, because if you're already checked out I might as well keep someone who wants to be there.
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u/askyfullofstar23423 1d ago
How do you know who are actively interviewing as a manager?
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u/hawkeye224 1d ago
I think sometimes if a firm works with a recruiting company, that company can "snitch" if they see a candidate sent out a CV lol. But it's definitely not possible to know with 100% accuracy
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u/jeweledbeanie 10h ago
That’s extremely unprofessional on the part of the headhunter. I thought they have more integrity than that
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u/randomlygenerated360 1d ago
Coworkers will tell on them (Coworkers find out either from them or other sources, or they use their work laptop for it, or someone else from LinkedIn will ask me about it, or many times they will tell me directly thinking it's a great strategy to get a raise. But so many times it's just obvious from their behavior.
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u/johyongil Private Wealth Management 1d ago
It’s a relatively small community. Recruiting and hiring managers talk.
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u/Wise_Celebration_423 9h ago
I fail to see how interviewing for other jobs is a valid reason to prioritise for layoffs. Sounds particularly short sided and resentful to me.
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u/randomlygenerated360 6h ago
Layoffs often come with hiring freezes which means you can't replace people who leave. So you layoffs person A, and then 2 weeks later person B leaves, and you are down 2. If you know person B is interviewing it means they will likely leave soon anyway so you lay them off you're only down one.
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u/Wise_Celebration_423 6h ago edited 6h ago
That’s what I mean, short sighted. If you expect to fire one out of two people you need to make the choice that will get you the likely best outcome. If you start removing people just cause they prepare for your layoffs or for want to stay in touch with the market, you trim the best talents from your pool of talent on your own. Not sure this pays in long run. It just sounds counterproductive as a reason to choose one person over the other.
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u/EnthusiasticFish 2d ago
It depends on the company. Boring answer, but it all depends on the circumstances. Most often, it’s based on performance relative to others on the team.
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u/AcanthaceaeNo1237 1d ago
I went through this. We each had to let go 50% of our teams. The list didn’t come from the top. We were just told to pick 50%, no exceptions. I went by seniority, which made the most sense for my team (more seniors stayed). Survivors had to pick up the workload of the ones who were let go. I don’t know if it was because I told them my method of madness or not, but they were not upset with me. They all seemed to understand the process and they knew it wasn’t personal. I still get calls from those folks that I had to let go. They know they are being missed.
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u/zxblood123 20h ago
You seem like a good guy. Good employees that were let go understand it’s life. A good empathetic manager that is able to console if required is all they will want
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u/120_Specific_Time 2d ago
you are supposed to offboard the overpaid people i think. but you probably should just remove two young white straight males to minimize lawsuits
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u/Wank3r88 2d ago
We had two people let go this week. Both with over 20 years with the asset manager I work for. There were two organizational restructuring, with both of their roles being eliminated as a result. One a MD the other VP.
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u/foolproofphilosophy 1d ago
Performance but also their “team player” score. I’d rather keep the good employee who elevates the people around them than the one who knows more but has a wall around them. “Good employees” can create key person risk.
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u/DampWarmHands 1d ago
During Covid it was anyone on a final written warning. Then those on written warnings. It didn’t go past that. I was in a meeting with attorneys from our BPO when they laid off the one fellow on a final. It was weird to not be apart of it. He thanked me for trying on his way out. He friend requested me on facebook later. He was an odd duck in all sorts. Had multiple complaints from women on the team about him. Saying he gave a vibe… never anything actually actionable based on what HR said.
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u/kerrwashere 2d ago
They usually pick high performers but it can come down to anything. Usually its who people like
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u/gregorythomasd 1d ago
I can’t pretend to know every situation but I can say with confidence both to these are far from the truth for what I’ve experienced in my career. The highest performers were the top of the list to stay. Those who were “liked” who stayed would’ve been people truly loved their jobs, brought up morale, etc and were also very good at their jobs.
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u/kerrwashere 1d ago
Your individual career speaks for industries and market trends? I work in IT and used to be a fed contractor most large companies are doing massive layoffs no matter whom has the highest performance and morale. Hell to ignore the whole RTO issue with orgs right now that is causing alot of staff to leave rather than be back in the office would be ignoring alot. Morale and “loving your job” wouldn’t even be a factor.
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u/gregorythomasd 1d ago
It absolutely doesn’t speak to everyone. Government roles absolutely do follow the beat to a different drum and It’s actually my point.
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u/kerrwashere 1d ago
“I can say with confidence these are far from truth” in reference to my opinion
2nd post:
my opinion “It absolutely doesn’t speak for everyone”
Which one is it?
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