PODCAST EP.52 - Special Edition - Facing Unfair Firings and What To Do Now

Episode Summary: In this special episode of Sweet on Leadership, Tim tackles the current wave of layoffs in the US and crossing the border into Canada, emphasizing that this is not business as usual. He speaks directly to those who have lost their jobs or fear they might be next. The recklessness of recent mass layoffs, particularly in public sector roles, is top of mind. If you're feeling the pressure or know someone else who is, be sure to tune in to this special episode!

Episode Notes
In this special episode of Sweet on Leadership, Tim tackles the current wave of layoffs in the US and crossing the border into Canada, emphasizing that this is not business as usual. He speaks directly to those who have lost their jobs or fear they might be next. The recklessness of recent mass layoffs, particularly in public sector roles, is top of mind. Tim tells us that these cuts are not about efficiency but rather a dismantling of essential institutions. He also critiques the private sector’s rollback of DEI and people-first initiatives, companies that once championed employee well-being but are now abandoning those commitments. Real leadership requires clear thinking, alignment, and intentional action—not reactionary decisions that leave employees scrambling.

To navigate these uncertain times, Tim provides a simple four-step action plan: reframe the situation by writing down your fears and aspirations, identify transferable skills (beyond just polishing a résume), activate your network with a professional and strategic approach, and sharpen your confidence and sense of worth daily. Job seekers need to treat their search as a full-time role, maintaining productivity and resilience even while processing emotions. Tim’s message is clear—while layoffs are often beyond control, how you respond can shape your future. Leaders, whether guiding a team or their own career, need to take charge, adapt, and move forward with purpose.

Contact Tim Sweet | Team Work Excellence: 

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Transcript
Tim
We're not living in normal times. If anything this past week has taught me, it's that it is not business as usual. This is a special edition of Sweet on Leadership, one that's inspired by the thousands of professionals who I am seeing abruptly cut loose without a plan and forced to navigate uncertainty in their career overnight. I feel positioned to be able to help, and so I want to take this episode to do that. Maybe that's you. Maybe it's somebody you know. Maybe it's someone you lead. If it is, please listen carefully, because today we're going to talk about what's happening, and more importantly, what to do about it. I'd like to ask you some questions. Do you consider yourself the kind of person that gets things done? Are you able to take a vision and transform that into action? Are you able to align others towards that vision and get them moving to create something truly remarkable? If any of these describe you, then you, my friend, are a leader, and this show is all about and all for you. Listen and you'll walk away with clarity, control, and a strategy to move forward. If you don't listen, you might just find yourself reacting to the storm instead of learning how to weather it and come out stronger. Even if you have a job today, even if you are not one of the ones that were cut, do yourself the favor of having a plan. I'm Tim Sweet. Welcome to a special episode of the Sweet on Leadership podcast. This is episode 52.

If you're from the US, you may be feeling this firsthand. The recent moves made unilaterally by the executive office by the President, moves that may yet be proven to be illegal, have upended lives overnight. And here in Canada, we're not immune. We might feel the heat very soon as economic pressures mount and as unintelligent decisions seem to migrate north, carried on the winds of bad leadership and worse policy. And no matter where you are, one thing is clear—when chaos happens, we have two choices. We can react and panic and fail and fall down and get tired, or we can adapt and we can lead, not necessarily for others, but at least for ourselves. So today we're going to talk about how to do the latter. This abrupt demobilization of public sector departments is extreme, so let's talk about some of the numbers. In just the past month, 220,000 odd federal employees, many with less than a year on the job, are gone. Poof, overnight. For instance, the Department of Veteran Affairs, 1000 layoffs. You want to tell me that that is all fat that needed to be trimmed? The US Forest Service, 3000 workers cut right before peak wildfire season, right after the worst fire season on record. And let's not forget about the air traffic controllers and what we've seen happening there, despite being dangerously understaffed and woefully overworked even before the current president's inauguration, they were handed even more responsibilities and a bunch of distraction as people were cut, others were offered job payouts, all of them are feeling the pressure. That's not efficiency, that's just reckless. That's cutting the engines mid flight and acting surprised when the plane starts to go down. This isn't restructuring; it's dismantling. It's something we haven't seen before on this scale. A business can cut jobs and streamline. Why? Because essentially, they are an autocracy. A country, a public institution, a democracy—you don't cut costs by cutting the very people who make the system work. A business has one goal, and that's profit. And this makes it relatively simple, whereas a government has different goals all around the common good—community, justice, human rights, long-term values. And when you cut the people who are there to uphold those things, you cut the purpose out from underneath the country. On top of all this, we're now seeing a corporate wave of DEI and people centric layoffs. And here's the next step in this domino effect. The private sector, in certain instances, is beginning to follow the same script. We're watching the same playbook unfold. Companies that spent the last four years building “people first” cultures are now gutting them overnight. And here's what's wild. The same companies that made big, bold statements about diversity, equity, inclusion, mental health, employee wellbeing and a whole bunch of other things, companies like KPMG, Amazon, Google, Walmart, Meta—they're all rolling back or eliminating DEI and other human centric programs. The Zuckerberg Initiative walking back its DEI efforts despite years of public commitments, it's a page right out of Elon Musk's Twitter takeover and his more nefarious moves with Doge. The Playbook seems to be as follows. Announce yourself as a leader who cuts the waste. Call anything that you don't personally understand or value, a “woke” distraction. Then watch people panic. Watch people infight for scraps instead of fighting for each other, fighting for what the company or the institution stands for. The leaders who are cutting these programs aren't just adjusting for the economy. They're intentionally shifting priorities. They're not all bad people. Some of them are being pressured to do so. And here's a question I have. Think about what happens to the people who brought into these companies with a “people first” vision? What happens to those leaders? What happens to the people who believed in these positive cultures made it feel like a safe place, found a measure of work life balance, found themselves? And what happens to all the people who look like me? Privileged white men who took it seriously, worked hard to cast off old-fashioned workplace attitudes, to move into a modern more just workplace. One that's less sexist, less racist, less scared of our own shadows. Well, I tell you, those who remain are going to face ever increasing pressures in the workplace, and they will become exhausted, especially if they care for people around them. Panic and fear breed bad behaviors, and when people feel scarcity, they isolate, they get defensive. And when fear runs into the room, things get nasty. This isn't just about the ones who are let go. This will damage those who stay. Because when good people feel unsafe, they will do bad things. When they feel scarce, they will do bad things to try to maintain their safety. If you were laid off, or if you think you might be next, let's get very, very clear about something. If you're one of the 1000s that have been released, an employee caught in a probationary period, or even one of those that has resigned rather than act against your own values or your oath, don't waste a second thinking that this release is your fault, that this is about you or your performance. It is not a reflection of your potential. Because of this, I have faith that you will rally. But make no mistake, this is unfair. And what I would say is you cannot take the energy away from yourself, getting lost and entertaining too many thoughts that somehow you deserved it. Unless you were shown some evidence of underperformance, some tangible proof, and you believed and could see the logic that you were underperforming, this argument holds no water. If you're feeling the weight of these layoffs, if you're staring down the barrel of uncertainty, remember, this is not your failure. But just because it's not about us, just because we didn't create the volatility and uncertainty and chaos we still have to deal with it, especially if we call ourselves leaders. This is a rash and reckless mismanagement, and it fails on the most basic leadership assessments. If you want to judge leadership, don't listen to the slogans that people are saying. Don't listen to the assertions that I think what they mean to say, and I think what they're really getting down to makes sense. Don't buy into that garbage. Look at the behaviors. When we see good leaders, we see a couple of key things. Good leaders, they think clearly, they listen widely. They build alignment before acting. They don't wake up and shoot off a bunch of true social posts, then purge entire departments overnight with no transition plan, with no logic. They don't destroy morale and expect engagement. What does all this mean? Well, if you can put aside the causation for a moment, let's focus on what are your next steps?

There are some things that you can do right away to put yourself in a much better position and get ready to find your next role. Hopefully some of these things are wound back, be ready to find your next role. And if you are in a role currently, give yourself a plan as a backup. Make sure that you have that career protection, that freedom, knowing that you've thought through some of these steps and you may have even acted on them. You will not be caught unaware. Here you go. Here are your next steps. I'm going to cover these at a very, very high level. Trust yourself. You're going to be able to chunk them down as appropriate, and we'll talk a little bit about that towards the end. First, reframe your situation. This is an action step. Stop and write down whatever your fears are. Maybe they haven't happened yet. Maybe they've just happened and now you're faced with a whole bunch of new chaos. Write it down. Write that down on one piece of paper. Now take out a fresh piece of paper and write down what excites you, if you can let go of those fears. Write them down. Group them, if necessary. Then write down what excites you. What energy do you find if you can let go of those fears? This gives us a priority. This gives us a priority list of what we need to do first. That's a mindset step. The next thing is, if you haven't done it already, get clear on your skills. Now I'm not just talking about “polish your resume.” What I am saying is that think about your skills as a leader, your skills as a professional. Write down five skills that are going to transfer for you, not just into your next role, but are actually going to become the skills you use through the next period where you're finding your next role. One thing that I like to say is that you already have another job. Your job is now to find your next role. You were a professional, whatever you did before. Be a professional in your job search. Write down those five skills that you have today, that other people are going to want, and those skills that you can already put to work, getting organized, getting busy, going out, and networking. Step three, activate that network. Message at least—we used to say three people a day—but I think that that's just really bogus. Think of it this way. You want to be messaging people. You want to be reaching out. You want to be applying for jobs. You're going to activate the network around you. You are going to start to apply for jobs strategically. But think about this. Think about what you were paid per day. Now, imagine if you took that amount of money. Let's say you make $120,000 a year. That means roughly, you're making $60 an hour, right? You're going to be making $480 a day, right? If you were to pay somebody $480 to find you your next job, what would you be satisfied with in terms of the workload that they would be putting in? Would it be reaching out to three people and applying for one job? I don't think so. You were a professional at work; be a professional in your job search. There will be a time to recover, and you will be doing that. You will grieve, but you can grieve and work. The working through things, the believing in yourself, the reminding yourself how much you're worth is worth far more than staying in your pajamas and eating a lot of ice cream and feeling progressively worse and worse and worse about yourself. You will grieve, but you can grieve on your feet. Okay? This is not about “get tough.” I am not saying shut off emotionally. You're going to feel a lot of emotions, and you should, and you should process them, but you can process them alongside the reminders of just how great you are at doing your work. If you were a strong organizer when you were in your job, organize yourself through this problem. If you were inventive in your job, invent your way through this problem, if you galvanized and networked people together through your job, network and galvanize people towards helping you and maybe others find a new job. Activate that network. Get busy. You want to get sharper. This is the fourth step. Get sharper every single day. I'm not talking about going out and retraining, although maybe that makes sense for you. What I mean is get sharper on just how much you are worth. Get sharper on your feeling of control over your own direction in your own career. Lead your career as you would lead a team, as you would lead a strategy, as you would lead your portfolio. Get sharp leading your own career. 

It's funny because most people will spend more time planning a vacation than they will planning their career. Now's your chance. Now's your chance to craft the work life that you want. Now's the chance to remind yourself what you're capable of and go out and get it. Then, yeah, take action. Apply for jobs. Remember that applying online is sort of 3% effective. It can be really, really demoralizing. I don't say that you shouldn't check the LinkedIn and the job posting boards. Absolutely do that, but the power here is getting out and meeting people, networking first. Network—always first. The reason is, network has a lot more leverage. When you apply for a job, you're maybe one of 300 people putting in for that job. When you go and meet someone, and you spend that time talking about what they're up to. You don't come with a resume in hand. You don't come asking for work. You go and you find out what they're up to. You get engaged and interested in what they're doing. You help them think through some of your problems. You apply some of your superpowers to helping them through their work. Guess what? All of a sudden, now you are going to have all sorts of space in their brain. The next thing that's going to happen is they are going to carry you and your potential with them. Now, you've got a person out there that's slinging for you. You have a person out there that cares about what you're up to. And they are going to engage in any chance they get in thinking about what you might be to that position. They may be doing it for more than one person, and that's okay. And they may be doing it for their own reasons, and that's okay, too. The key is, get people that you know or you don't know well enough yet out there thinking about you. Get interested in them. You will, you will convince them so much more of your potential if you show them in their context, not yours. 
So, okay. My final thought here, this is a really tough period for a lot of people. It's going to be nerve wracking. We are going to have people around us that are going to be going through a lot of issues, and I hope if you find somebody like that, maybe you'll share this with them. But there's that saying, “Never waste a good crisis.” We have a chance right now to be present and really decide how we want our career to go for the rest of our working life. And this is a great chance to do that. For all my friends down there in the States, when you're tired, execute on your plan. When you are scared, execute on your plan. When you don't feel good enough, execute on your plan. Remember that your brain will lie to you in your own voice. Just keep moving forward. You will feel yourself getting sharper. will feel yourself getting more momentum. You will feel the support that starts to gather around you.

If you find yourself scared to go out and network, if you start to feel like you're failing at that, or that you're annoying people, or that you're fearing rejection, work those feelings. Don't give up on the activity. Go and do the behavior. Work on those feelings, because chances are you're not feeling what other people are feeling. But do the activities. I'll be putting out a little more information on this. Attach what I can here. We all have a responsibility here to call out shitty leadership when we see it. You can come from whatever political background you want to come from, but when we look at the people that are making these decisions and are running these programs, ask yourself, “Is that a leader that I would want to follow? Is that a leader I'd want to work for? Is that a leader I'd want to be?” And if the answer is no, chances are we can take what they're doing with, you know, a little bit of harsh criticism—we can critique that fairly harshly, and know that we would do better than that and that eventually, crappy leaders, they burn down everything around them. They light their path with the bridges they burn, and provided they don't burn down too much around them, they will burn themselves out. Because at the end of the day, look… National organizations, universities, hospitals, they're all about the common good. And it's so much more important than simple profits, and it's so much deeper than running something like a business where that's the only option. The currencies are wide. We have currencies of community. We have currencies of human rights. We have currencies of justice for all. We have currencies of value and neighborliness. Focus on those. Those are the things that are going to survive through all of this. Take care of yourself. Check my site for some free tools. Support those around you. Well, that was a little bit of a strange one, but thank you for listening. We’ll see you soon.

Thank you so much for listening to Sweet on Leadership. If you found today's podcast valuable, consider visiting our website and signing up for the companion newsletter. You can find the link in the show notes. If, like us, you think it's important to bring new ideas and skills into the practice of leadership, please give us a positive rating and review on Apple podcasts. This helps us spread the word to other committed leaders, and you can spread the word too by sharing this with your friends, teams and colleagues. Thanks again for listening, and be sure to tune in in two weeks time for another episode of Sweet on Leadership. In the meantime, I'm your host. Tim Sweet, encouraging you to keep on leading you.