Laying Off – The Israeli Way

in Opinions by Yohay Elam — May 20, 2010 at 12:13 pm | 3 comments

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Israeli and American cultures differ in many ways. These differences are best felt in hard times – when a company fires people. Here’s how it looks on both sides of Atlantic, and why I prefer the Israeli way.

I was unfortunate to experience many rounds of layoffs in every company I worked. I was fortunate to personally escape them. Most of these rounds were done in the “Israeli way”.

The Israeli way

It begins with closed doors in managers’ rooms and then continues with rumors in the smoking room. When whispers become louder, some workers begin polishing their CVs.

In some cases, the management gathered the workers and told them that downsizing was on its way in the next few days. Such a move definitely hurts productivity and causes uncertainty. On the other hand, explaining the situation prepares the workers for the painful move, lays out the future prospects for the company and creates more trust. Sure, nobody enjoys being fired or seeing his friends fired, but understanding the motivation of the managers for this move softens it.

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Another aspect of what I call “The Israeli way” is the compassionate feeling I saw from Israeli managers who had to make these tough decisions. In many cases, they had a harder time than the people they just fired. A “whiter shade of pale” can describe their faces in the days around the act.

When the Israeli managers gathered the company to announce the layoffs to the workers left behind, their sorrow was very convincing. After the initial shock, the uncertainty was gone and the workers knew what expects on the road ahead. The prospects aren’t always positive after such a move, but they are rather clear.

The American way

Americans do business. Strictly business. They work through the vast majority of office hours, they talk / email to the point, and they respect deadlines in a way that Israelis don’t always comprehend.

And also when they lay off people, they move on fast. Too fast. In one of the rounds I’ve witnessed, the American manager wrote a long email describing in detail the changes in the company’s goals and the reshuffle in the management. Reorganization is important.

When it came to mentioning the layoffs, his words were something like: “.. in the process of re-organization, we eliminated a handful of jobs that did not directly contribute to our key initiatives”.

I read these lines over and over again. Professional managers have to make tough and cold-hearted decisions in order to bring their company to success. All of us had a traumatic day: workers that were fired, workers that saw their friends depart and managers that had a very tough role in this painful process. Can’t you show some compassion?

I must say that these phenomenons happen in Israeli companies as well, but this isn’t the common case. I once witnessed a round of downsizing that began in the last 90 minutes of the week – 15 people were fired in a span of soccer game, one week after the managers promised a bright future in a toast for the new year.

They can learn from George Clooney:

Have you experienced these cultural differences?

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