The Survivor Syndrome

This article originally appeared in the January 2009 edition of Business Brief.

Picture the scene. There are 20 of you in the funds team. You go to the annual conference and spend the morning in a series of presentations. After lunch, you are split into 2 groups and are told to go to separate rooms for further sessions. The first group is told that times are hard. They are then told that they are to be made redundant and are informed that there are taxis are waiting outside to take them home. 'Thank you very much for your services, now off you go.' No redundancy payment. No bonus. No benefits. The second group is told that the first group is being made redundant but that their jobs are okay, for now.