Employees are not typically delighted when their company lays off staff while it lays down new carpet. Regardless of the rationale, the employees are left with the impression that management views the work environment as being more important than the workers.
Nonetheless, companies may have fairly acceptable reasons for doing some redecorating, even during tough economic times. For example, there may be long-term contracts in place that call for the work to be done, or perhaps the work is needed to improve safety or productivity. Perhaps the redecorating project has already been dramatically reduced.
At the same time, it is also possible that the company is being shortsighted and insensitive, and is overlooking the fact that many firms implement across-the-board cuts during difficult times, with projects such as redecorating being deferred.
The real issue in your case is that management failed to provide the employees with adequate information regarding the redecorating program itself. In this era of open management, unilaterally introducing a redecorating program in the middle of layoffs may well cause many employees to redecorate their resumes.
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