Thirty-nine years ago this month, FedEx pulled the plug on its then fledgling ubiquitous fax service, ZapMail, creating a 10-digit hole in the corporate balance sheet, and a couple thousand employees they absolutely, positively didn’t need.
Prior to the public announcement, FedEx founder Fred Smith gathered a handful of leaders and reminded them of the company’s well-known, but unpublished stance on corporate layoffs, as in “barring truly catastrophic conditions, there won’t be any.”
He assigned them the task of ensuring that every one of the soon to be displaced persons would be offered a full time job at FedEx for which they were qualified. Those who declined would leave with generous severance and outplacement assistance.
Together with the assignment, he told the team that they were operating on his authority, and should any manager resist taking one of the displaced teammates, he would intervene personally. Thankfully, no one opted for Door #2, the private audience with a pissed off Marine. (As an aside, that Marine is very much missed and on our minds of late.)
So why am I bringing this up? The business world is on the leading edge of a not dissimilar experience resultant from the impending widespread commercial application of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Many of us are already waist-deep in conversations about excess “heads” and how/when to deal with them. Three thoughts:
- Regardless of employment status, they’re not “heads” but people, YOUR people for the time being; and it’s your corporate (and personal) reputation that will be burnished or sullied by how you deal with them. Keep that top of mind, alongside the realization that someday that could be you, or one of your loved ones.
- These people, in the case of FedEx, had already demonstrated clearly that they were talented, reliable, and by virtue of pace, preference, values, and temperament, they “fit” the organization. I dare say the same holds true for many of those who are about to be declared “excess” at your place. If your organization is still in growth mode, and IF you’re truly serious about being an “employer of choice”, this might be a good time to back that claim up.
- Whatever you do, think beyond the immediate set of circumstances, as you will likely be rewarded. Indeed in the case of FedEx, some of the former ZapMail brainiacs were soon making contributions to the base business in ways that would never have been imagined, let alone realized.
