I am very glad I came across your substack. In fact a lot of what you write about overlaps with the themes I explore too: how professionals often stay stuck, not because they don’t see the signs, but because they’re overwhelmed, loyal, or quietly afraid of what’s next.
I found your take on cost-cutting very interesting. I’d literally never thought of it as a potential positive signal before, and always assumed it meant an organisation was in trouble.
And the line about “passive decisions being the worst kind” really stuck with me. I’ve written about the action fallacy — how we confuse movement with progress — but this feels like its quieter sibling: inertia dressed up as stability. Anyhow, great article. In case you are interested, check out my substack profile. Also leaving a link to my article on the action fallacy as it may interest you. Feel free to let me know your thoughts! Can't wait to read more of your articles.
Great article, Kathy. As I was reading, I was thinking 'But most of the employees wouldn't be senior enough to know about missed quarterly targets' so your advice to start paying attention to how your employer is performing is spot on.
Re the rounds of redundancies, what I've notices is that once one department is restructured, others generally follow, but organizations don't always share that this will happen as they don't want a mass exodus. Sometimes they even tell employees that there won't be any further changes. Of course, 3 months later, another department is restructured.
My partner was made redundant during Covid in the third round of layoffs, despite employees being told a year before that everyone's jobs were safe. And like you say, that doesn't mean the people at the top are evil, it just means that we as employees need to pay more attention and take action when we sense that our jobs may be on the line.
You're 100% right, most employees wouldn't know. I was writing this more for senior leaders, but I think that all employees can use this advice to up level their understanding of how leaders make these types of decisions.
You're right about cascading decisions across the organization. It's difficult to coordinate changes all at once. That is the ideal way to execute, but most organizations don't have the discipline nor the level of operational rigor to make it happen.
And yes, leaders will not indicate if further changes are anticipated. They often aren't hiding that information -- they may believe it's possible and even likely, but they simply can't share that. Sharing it won't help the team sadly. But the inevitable changes will be hard to swallow, too.
I'm so sorry to hear your partner was affected, and yes, I hope more employees can use these signals as a way to be more proactive in their careers!
I am very glad I came across your substack. In fact a lot of what you write about overlaps with the themes I explore too: how professionals often stay stuck, not because they don’t see the signs, but because they’re overwhelmed, loyal, or quietly afraid of what’s next.
I found your take on cost-cutting very interesting. I’d literally never thought of it as a potential positive signal before, and always assumed it meant an organisation was in trouble.
And the line about “passive decisions being the worst kind” really stuck with me. I’ve written about the action fallacy — how we confuse movement with progress — but this feels like its quieter sibling: inertia dressed up as stability. Anyhow, great article. In case you are interested, check out my substack profile. Also leaving a link to my article on the action fallacy as it may interest you. Feel free to let me know your thoughts! Can't wait to read more of your articles.
https://fenixwrites.substack.com/p/why-dumbae-get-promoted
Thanks, Fenix!
So happy elements of my post resonated.
I loved your post as well. You summarized your insights so beautifully and I thought your examples were so helpful.
Action fallacy and its siblings inertia & passive decisions.
Love it!
Great article, Kathy. As I was reading, I was thinking 'But most of the employees wouldn't be senior enough to know about missed quarterly targets' so your advice to start paying attention to how your employer is performing is spot on.
Re the rounds of redundancies, what I've notices is that once one department is restructured, others generally follow, but organizations don't always share that this will happen as they don't want a mass exodus. Sometimes they even tell employees that there won't be any further changes. Of course, 3 months later, another department is restructured.
My partner was made redundant during Covid in the third round of layoffs, despite employees being told a year before that everyone's jobs were safe. And like you say, that doesn't mean the people at the top are evil, it just means that we as employees need to pay more attention and take action when we sense that our jobs may be on the line.
Thanks, Wendy!
You're 100% right, most employees wouldn't know. I was writing this more for senior leaders, but I think that all employees can use this advice to up level their understanding of how leaders make these types of decisions.
You're right about cascading decisions across the organization. It's difficult to coordinate changes all at once. That is the ideal way to execute, but most organizations don't have the discipline nor the level of operational rigor to make it happen.
And yes, leaders will not indicate if further changes are anticipated. They often aren't hiding that information -- they may believe it's possible and even likely, but they simply can't share that. Sharing it won't help the team sadly. But the inevitable changes will be hard to swallow, too.
I'm so sorry to hear your partner was affected, and yes, I hope more employees can use these signals as a way to be more proactive in their careers!