“You’ve allowed me keep my job. Now give me back my dignity!”

Type “dignity in work” into Google and you get a number of hits mostly dealing with how organisation can best implement redundancies while treating those been asked to leave with respect and dignity.

But what dignity for those who are being retained by companies? How dignifying are your methods in retaining talented employees?

Lets use George as an example.

George is a coaching client of mine - he was identified as a high potential director by his company 10 months ago.

Yet last month George and his four peers were told that they each had to do a twenty minute presentation as a part of an overall one hour interview to justify why they should be retained for one of them would be let go.

George did a good presentation and interview and in fact got put into a higher profile role but a month latter he is still raising in our coaching sessions the questions “Did my successes and commitment of the last 8 years mean nothing?” He resents the X-factor nature of fighting for his career – one hour of show time to demonstrate his worthiness.

And the extra kick in the arse – none of the management level above George were forced to go through a similar exercise – they all retained their roles automatically.

George continues to feel anger at the hypocrisy and continues to struggle with his 8 plus years of commitment to a company that have made that commitment null and void.

Take Ann as one more example.

Her function also went through redundancies - she has been retained and actually presented with a new role that has been described as putting her into her “sweet spot”

The following 3 months have seen Ann move from feeling appreciative, valued and excited to now feeling devalued, demotivated and micromanaged as her “sweet spot” role has resulted in her bosses focusing, not on her great strengths, but on things she doesn’t like doing and knows she does not do well.

Ann is losing her self belief as she is forced to be what she is not.

George and Ann are talented people. Considered good enough to survive aggressive redundancy programs. And yet both are questioning how the organisation is treating them as a survivor.

For the organisations involved, they are freezing talented individuals – freezing them with fear for the next round of redundancies, freezing their loyalty to organisations that they have given so much to, and freezing their instinct and talents.

Organisations need to plan and demonstrate a lot more empathy and support to those they retain – for these are the people who will get companies out of this current situation.