During the past few months, a friend of mine has kept me updated on the effect the economy has had on his workplace. In his department, as well as most in the company, a quarter of the staff has been let go. The remaining members have not only taken significant pay cuts, they are now required to take periodic, mandatory furloughs.

It is bad, but what has bothered him the most is how it is happening. With an office adjacent to the boss, he’s watched things transpire.

“We all could initially tell something was going on by the fact that either our boss was never here or when he was here, his door was closed,” he says. “He’s now inaccessible, period.”

There’s also the little problem of whenever the door actually is open: It often spells bad news for someone.

“It’s terrible,” he says. “When it’s your turn to go, he puts an empty box on your desk and mumbles something about your services no longer being needed.”

Stories like these are becoming the norm in companies across the country.

“I’ve heard story after story,” says Denise Knutson, senior consultant for The H.S. Group, a career management company with locations in Green Bay and Appleton. “People have been handed envelopes with someone else’s name on the front; they’ve had their personal items packed up for them and when they open the box, they can feel the broken glass from the picture frames.”

Leading through a recession is testing everyone’s collective mettle. Knutson has some tips if it’s a challenge in your organization.

“You have to be visible,” she begins. “It establishes trust with your employees; they can’t be confident in a phantom.”

You can take your cues about how honest and open you should be with your employees by the existing culture within the company.

“If you’ve historically been very open with employees, that should set how open you are now,” suggests Knutson. “When people are put to work sweeping the floors instead of getting the product out the door, they know it’s not good. It’s okay to be honest about it. You can say, ‘Here’s what’s happening, this is what I’m thinking about it’ and so forth. You can talk about goals and projections.”

Being visible is also important to retaining key talent that you don’t want to lose. While few people are voluntarily seeking new positions right now, studies show that a significant number of employees always keep an eye open in search of better opportunities.

“Employees are observing how their leaders and managers perform during difficult times,” she says. “When the economy turns around, there will be pent-up demand for key talent, and they will have a pent-up desire to pursue new opportunities unless they feel comfortable where they are.”

For them, as well as employees as a whole, now is also a time to lead with compassion.

“Leaders can take a moment, in a very general way, to remind employees of resources that may be available to them, such as an EAP or whom your benefit point people are,” she suggests, noting that many employees are indeed facing serious personal economic issues that impact their ability to stay focused, positive and productive.

If you are faced with having to let an employee go, do it in a dignified manner. Ex-employees who leave on a bad note will remember and tell others their horror stories, tarnishing your company’s reputation.

Moreover, you might eventually find yourself in a position where you even may need to call an employee back to work.

“One of the things that people really are struggling with is the loss of control they feel when they lose their jobs,” she says. “There may be a point in the future when you need to call that specific employee. At that point, they’re in control of the situation and they can choose to accept the offer.”

Or not. In some cases, after an abrupt send off, it can be very, very satisfying for an ex-employee simply to say no and find better opportunity elsewhere.

By Laurie Arendt

Laurie Arendt is editor of CRW. She can be reached at crweditor@crwmag.com