This one is a real ‘pet hate’ for me, as it seems to happen all too often. And I always find myself wondering how employers can’t understand the impact this can have on someone. Think about it for a moment … essentially, you are giving them a message that says something like this:
“Hey there Mary! I know we made you redundant and everything, but it would be really convenient for us if you could just hang around until we’ve delivered all of that work. You know, the work we’re saying isn’t really necessary anymore, which is why you are being made redundant?”
This is unfair. And inevitably results in your employee feeling angry. Or annoyed. Or confused. Or some other not-so-nice emotion. Maybe not right away, but probably at some point.
Again, this also makes it really hard for the person to move on, as they end up stuck in a situation where it becomes really difficult to work out how to effectively ‘time’ their job search activities.
Do they start looking for a new job now, or later? If they start looking now, what happens if they find something right away? Can they leave even through the project isn’t finished? Will they still get their redundancy pay? On the other hand, if they wait a while to start looking for a new job, it might end up taking them longer than expected to find something. So when should they start looking? Now, or later? Again – this can create additional stress and uncertainty.