2020 hindsight: In search of something positive (other than COVID-19)

Many employment attorneys have been carrying out some of the difficult work required by the COVID-19 pandemic: closing businesses and laying off employees. Let’s try to find a positive spin on the work and the year 2020.

Furloughs and layoffs aplenty

Employment attorneys like to put a positive spin on our job. As hard as I have tried over the past eight months, however, it’s difficult to feel upbeat about the job losses caused by the pandemic.

The first coronavirus-related furlough I worked on occurred in late March. More than 1,000 employees “temporarily” lost their jobs in the furlough. For most of the group, “temporary” lasted for six months. As the health and economic crisis dragged on, some of those furloughs transitioned into permanent layoffs.

Days after the massive furlough, I worked on a layoff. Then another layoff, followed by two more. Large and small employers alike had no choice but to shutter and downsize. As employment lawyers, we understand employers must make difficult decisions for the benefit of their entire organization, but the number of layoffs I touched in March and April alone exceeded the total I had previously done over my 20-year career.

The realization that so many individuals were being let go—along with the stress, fear, and anxiety the job losses would bring to them and their families—was striking. Unlike employees we help “transition” to new opportunities, these individuals had no hand in causing their loss.