It seems that hard times in the world of commerce aren’t distributed evenly across the spectrum: the NY Times reports that business is booming for companies providing “layoff services” to corporations cutting jobs.
Yes, those executive teams that decided a decade ago to ship your job to Bangalore or Manila are also outsourcing the dirty business of managing the process of mass terminations that flow in the wake of the economic collapse. One source estimated that more than a million Americans joined the ranks of the unemployed last year; I guess their erstwhile employers could no more handle that than they could other basic business processes.
These firms provide everything from management training (“Laying off your staff 101”) to “outplacement counseling”. According to the Times, a “basic package of services for a departing employee, including a one-day seminar, can cost about $1000.”
Last month’s canning of 1000 Yahoo! employees resulted in an interesting leak to a San José blog of the script to be used by managers in handling the terminations. All geared at protecting the company’s legal butt, of course.
I suppose it’s emblematic of American entrepreneurship that, no matter what the economic situation, there’ll always be companies popping up to see an opportunity & step in to fill it.
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