“Hi Rich,
What is your view on exit interviews? I worked for a large b2b SaaS company and they’ve just made over 1,000 of us redundant. They have ripped the heart out of my working life. I’m still really hurt they let me go but the severance could have been worse. What sort of answers should I give just to get it over with? Could it harm the reference they give me?”
Jonathan, Dublin, Ireland
Rich’s reply
Jonathan, I am sorry you were included in the headcount reductions.
Over the last few decades (ahem, cough – cough), I’ve been in a few organisations when employee numbers were forcibly trimmed. I remember one, quite brutal one, earlier in my career when the marketing department was cut from over 600 to under 200.
A week before Christmas in, I think, 2008 (two months after I’d bought my first apartment), I received a call from an ExCo member out of the blue telling me that I was part of the unlucky few. I was shocked to say the least, as I was doing extremely well managing Neil's, the CMO, pet project. She didn’t like my pushback and insisted that I would be receiving a letter from HR regarding my package. I ‘Instant Messaged’ (showing my age there!) the CMO asking if this was legit. He called me, assured me it was a mistake and went ballistic. There was a mix up in excel and I was just a number that got caught up in things.
But the lesson I learnt was how cold it could be. How easy it could be to be swept up into things. How, to the company, I was just an Employee Identification Number (EIN) and it didn’t matter what I’d done, what I was doing… these things can be arbitrary decisions without much thought.
Tech businesses in particular are very cyclical and when they make hiring pushes or downsizing…the volume involved tends to be at the more extreme ends of the scale. Lots of good people get swept up in it all and are more than likely to be people the company would actually rather have kept.
You should do what you are comfortable with in regard to the Exit Interview request, but I am quite blunt in my assessment of them in a redundancy scenario. I view them as offering very little upside but meaningful risk to the, departing, employee.
When I offer advice on this letter’s page, I do so under caveat but also with my intentions clear. I want to help you by giving you my view to consider. I have zero allegiance to your company.
So, my advice, assuming your exit package is finalised and secured, is to be very polite, say as little as possible and focus your energy on your next chapter. That’s if you do wish on taking part, as there is no obligation for you to do so and I would not feel that you owe them anything.
To borrow one of the British Royal Family's mantras, never complain and never explain.
Exit interviews exist to help companies feel better about their processes and protect themselves for the next time. If the company really cared what you thought, they would have asked you long before this point. If you have friends in HR (typically lovely humans when not having to represent the company in difficult situations) then you can share your comments to them in private and off the record.
I just do not see any upside for you in completing an exit interview. Some firms may even wave gift cards at you to do so but I still wouldn't budge.
As you mention, those in a redundancy situation are often still feeling raw and emotional. You may, accidentally, negatively alter the reference you receive. You may say something which harms you if you do have to take a legal route regarding your package. You may even impact some of the friends you are leaving behind.
You only live once Jonathan, so you do whatever you are most comfortable with doing. But you don’t owe a former employer anything. They got your hard work and you got paid. Put your future energy into you, and your career and your family.
I wish you all the luck in the world. This is just a bump in the road.
Onwards!
