I wrote yesterday about a store I frequent that was “like a ghost town” when I went in the other day.  The guy who has handled my account there for the last few years announced when I saw him he was looking for a career change.  He’s mid-forties and not exactly an ideal candidate for a career change in a poor economy.  When I asked him why he was leaving, he told me they’d cut his hours, cut his pay and weren’t giving him the respect he deserved — all that after 22 years of loyal service.  Make no mistake this is not some marginal employee.  This guy is a winner in every sense of the word, and his announcement shocked me.

Now I can hear the manager talking in my mind’s eye.  He’s saying, “Times are hard.  We don’t want to have to let anyone go, so we’re all going to have to tighten our belts a little and make a sacrifice so we don’t have to let someone go right before Christmas.”

That’s good.  Isn’t it?  I mean, we like all our employees, who would we let go right before Christmas?  Maybe things will pick up soon and we’ll be glad we kept everyone on.  It’s reasonable that we bear this burden together, isn’t it?  We’re a team — no, more than a team.  We’re a family.  How can we put one (or more) family member(s) out on the street?

What I know for sure, is the day my contact’s pay was cut, he was gone.  Sure, he’s still hanging around, still drawing a (somewhat smaller) paycheck.  But he left emotionally the second they told him his pay was being cut.  Though the above thought process sounds good, it’s fatally flawed.  Now instead of one (or maybe a few more than one) really unhappy person, you have a whole company full of angry employees.  Every last one of them feels ripped off after 20 some years of service to have their hours and their pay unceremoniously cut.  This is one of those cases where the motive may be pure, but the answer is still wrong.

In tough economic times, managers have to make tough decisions.  Cutting someone’s pay is never an option.  If you don’t like them, let them go.  If you do like them, keep them around and let someone else go.  But don’t try to make everyone happy.  It never works.  In times like these you need to do a lifeboat drill.  You throw every single person in the company in the water and bring them into the lifeboat one at a time according to whom you need the most desperately.  When the lifeboat is full, it’s full.  Those left in the water don’t make it.

If you’re the manager, don’t be afraid to leave someone in the water.  It’s the law of natural selection.  It’s not your fault.  It’s something that’s out of your control, but something that absolutely must be done.  If you’re an employee, make darn sure what you’re doing is done so well they couldn’t possibly consider leaving you behind.  When things are good, everyone has a job.  When things are tight, only the best make the cut.  Make sure you’re the best.