News & Record publishes Noer column on effects of layoffs

David Noer, the Frank S.Holt Jr. Professor of Business Leadership at Elon, had his monthlycolumn published March 9, 2008, in the (Greensboro, N.C.) News &Record.The topic was the effect of layoffs on a community and what he calls “layoff survivor sickness.”

Noer used a family metaphor to illustrate four points:

1.) The psychological contract between employer and employee has irrevocably changed.
2.) Who we are should not be where we work – we should not put our social and psychological eggs in the organizational basket.
3.) We need to be accessible to community members who suffer emotional damage from the change in the psychological contract.
4.) We can’t become trapped by only possessing a non-transferable skill that is of value to only one company in one context. We need to continue to develop marketable, transferable skills throughout our careers.

To read the full column, click on the link below.