Layoffs 101: How to Do a Shitty Thing in the Least Shitty Way Possible
Summary:
Layoffs are brutal, but how you treat people during the process is what they'll remember forever. Nina Jacinto has managed five layoffs in five years and created "The Layoff Guide: A guide for HR professionals to do a shitty thing in the least shitty way possible" - because the biggest indicator of success isn't whether you avoided the layoff – it's how you handled the humans involved.
What’s in it for you:
You're facing the possibility of layoffs and want to do them ethically
You need a step-by-step process that protects both people and your mission
You want scripts and frameworks for the hardest conversations you'll ever have
You're looking for guidance on supporting both those leaving and those staying
Helia’s Perspective
I've been on both sides of layoffs. At Revolution Foods, we did layoffs literally almost every calendar year during my time there. Sometimes I felt I had done exceptional work - 90+ customer retention, hitting sales goals, retaining our teams - none of which were the norm! But changes were often made without even asking me. It was really hard, especially in years when the business outcomes felt strong.
And, year after year of this taught me something foundational: Rev Foods’ work was not to employ people. It was to make and serve healthy school meals. To change what school food looked like. To model what was possible.
They offered me a salary to do a job in support of their mission, and I said yes! While it was tough for me and my team to be impacted by decisions made without me, it forced me to focus on what I could control: aligning my team’s work to the org’s mission AND supporting team members through tough changes when they inevitably happened. In most businesses, change is inevitable – but navigating the HOW proactivelhy and compassionately is EVERYTHING.
Nina gets this completely: "The biggest indicator of moving through change successfully is how well did you treat your employees at the time that you communicated this change - that is what people remember.” When we need to do hard things, we can ground ourselves in the reality that it's not our role to employ people. Instead, we ask: How are we doing our mission, and how do we do layoffs in a way that brings us to the next phase of our work with the best culture and best chance to be successful?
Nina is practical and has done this OVER AND OVER – which matters because we all have emotions, and we don't want to be making decisions in that space.The wisdom that comes from experience plus perspective plus someone who cares deeply about the world goes a long way.
Nina’s Story
Nina's expertise in layoffs came the hard way. "I have unfortunately had the opportunity to do a number of layoffs at companies. I started doing them back in 2015 and did one to two layoffs for about five years in a row. It was brutal. It's brutal every time."
But that brutal experience taught her something crucial: "Although no one will ever thank you for doing a layoff in a good way, there is a good way or better way to do it and there are ways that are terrible to do it."
Her approach is captured in "The Layoff Guide," which she describes with characteristic directness: "A guide for HR professionals to do a shitty thing in the least shitty way possible." The guide came from years of experience and a simple realization: "Remember, you're never going to be thanked for doing a shitty thing in a not-shitty way, but it is still worth doing well and with integrity."
The experience shaped her understanding of organizational change: "You cannot make big changes at your organization involving people without bringing people along and there's a simple way to do it but is very difficult to execute."
Nina's approach is grounded in a key insight: "One of the biggest indicators of moving through change successfully is how well you treated your employees at the time that you communicated this change. That is what people remember."
Her philosophy comes down to this: "You might have been thinking about this change for months, and now you're going to announce the change and you might think it's the end. And I'm here to remind you, 'No, it's the beginning. It's the beginning of the change.' Because it's everyone else's day one."
Another happy place - any and all botanical gardens!
What this Looks Like in Practice
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Nina has a counterintuitive insight: "I've been thinking a lot about organizations getting so scared of the folks who are leaving the organization, who are upset with the organization, who are underperforming. And I'm like, you need to understand that that takes away from the people who are doing a good job."
Her advice is strategic: "Put your attention into the people who are doing work for you in a way that you want to retain. Focus on your retention. It's actually extremely strategic to pay attention to the people you want to hold on to."
This mindset needs to shape everything - starting with who you include in your Reduction-in-Force (RIF) planning team. Nina recommends keeping this group small and need-to-know, but she's strategic about who gets included: "The RIF team is the group of people who are in the know about the layoffs before they are announced publicly." You want people who understand the organization, know your high performers, and can help you think through how decisions will land for individuals and teams.
When determining who to lay off, Nina insists on documented rationale that considers the human impact and also ensures equity in your decision making: "Create a password-protected spreadsheet to track layoff rationale. Create a final column to outline the documented rationale for eliminating the position and retaining each position." But the spreadsheet should also include information about how you anticipate each individual receiving the information, whether they’ll be staying or leaving, so you can thoughtfully tailor follow-up conversations as needed.
When planning layoffs, Nina tells leadership teams: "When you're trying to think, 'Did I do a good job on this?' I don't want you to think about, 'Did all the conversations happen?' What you need to think about is, oh, Sally over here has been here four years, I know she's going to be really emotionally impacted. Is she still going to be here in a year? Was I able to get her on board?"
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Nina uses a simple framework for helping people through change: "It's three phases - I don't get it, I don't like it, I don't like you. And the guidance is always - don't let them get to the third thing because if they stop liking you, they’ve stopped trusting you, and you're not coming back from that."
But understanding the phases is only half the battle - you need a communication strategy that meets people where they are. Nina's approach to layoff communication is deliberately excessive. Instead of the typical "one meeting and an email," she recommends multiple channels of communication: "You meet with everybody at the organization that day, you slack them to give them a heads up that some key changes are happening and we're going to have a lot of conversations about it, then you have the organization meeting, then you say by the way we're going to have many more organizational meetings to keep talking about this."
Her guidance for frequency: "Have a town hall meeting every week, send out an anonymous Q&A form for people to submit questions. What you want is for people to be so annoyed that you're still talking about these changes and still willing to address questions that they're like, 'Stop. We’re done. We understand.”' You don't want people to be feeling like, 'My questions were not answered. My issues were unaddressed.'"
The strategy works because it gives people time to move through those phases: "Most of your team will learn to accept it. They'll learn to see why it makes sense, why it's beneficial. People are looking for clarity. Once they have that clarity, they often bounce back and learn to feel good about going forward."
The key insight: "Step into the shoes of someone who is just learning about the changes today and really tap into what kind of clarity you would want.”
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Nina's core insight drives everything: "The biggest indicator of moving through change successfully is how well you treat your employees at the time that you communicated this change. That is what people remember."
This shows up in the details of her approach. For layoff conversations, she provides specific scripts but emphasizes the tone: "The key to a good delivery is to get right to the point, to be serious but kind, and to follow a script." Her do's and don'ts are all about dignity - do make it private, do present the news sensitively, don't make it the conversation about your feelings.
For separation packages, Nina pushes for generosity not just as kindness but as strategy: "Separation packages are tools that companies use to incentivize people to agree not to sue a company. Given this reality, you still have an opportunity to support people who are affected by poor business decisions." She recommends generous severance, extended benefits coverage, career coaching services, accelerated vesting of stock, immigration support - anything that recognizes the human impact.
Even timing matters: "When I work and project manage teams through change and we're trying to pick a day to launch the changes, I want to know who's on vacation the weeks after. I want to know that managers are going to be available. I want to know that there aren't big huge deadlines on the horizon that are going to be affected by people still reeling."
Nina is realistic about the limitations: "Even if you do this process really well, you're always going to risk turnover, from people who can’t accept the decision. That's okay." But the goal remains clear: "No one will ever thank you for doing a layoff in a good way, but it is still worth doing well and with integrity."
The test is simple: Years later, when someone tells the story of their layoff, what will they say about how you treated them?
Secret Sauce & Takeaways
Remember you're never going to be thanked: "No one will ever thank you for doing a layoff in a good way, but it is still worth doing well and with integrity"
Day one is their day one: Leadership has been thinking about changes for months; for everyone else, announcement day is day one; communicate as if everyone else is playing catch-up – because they are
Focus on retention, not just departures: Strategic attention goes to keeping the people you want to keep
Overprepare obsessively: Have templates for expected questions, practice scenarios, plan timing around schedules and key leadership availability
Communication strategy trumps everything: Weekly town halls, anonymous questions, team lead follow-ups until people ask you to stop
“I don’t get it → I don’t like it → I don’t like you”: this is the change cycle. Prevent reaching that third stage.
Treat people well throughout: "How well did you treat your employees at the time that you communicated this change - that is what people remember"
Restoration in Lake Tahoe - I try to take an annual trip with my dad to Tahoe
Questions to Ask Yourself
How am I supporting the people who are being retained?
Have I prepared answers for the questions I can "almost guarantee" will come up?
What's my plan for the days and weeks AFTER the layoff announcement?
Am I making decisions about individual transitions based on clear, documented criteria?
How can I create multiple opportunities for people to ask questions and process this change?
Want to Try This?
Lots of great goodies here - and all are recommended to be considered and planned around in partnership with a legal advisor!Templates & Guides:
Nina's complete "Layoff Guide - A guide for HR professionals to do a shitty thing in the least shitty way possible” (my fave title EVER!) includes…
Decision-making frameworks for determining who to lay off, creating schedules for layoff day, script templates for difficult conversations, and checklists for offboarding
Separation package guidance covering severance formulas, extended benefits, career coaching, stock acceleration, and immigration support
FAQ templates for both departing employees and retained staff, with talking points(!) for consistent communication
Sample rationale documentation with another GREAT quote: “My guide can help you do something in a less shitty way but it can’t help you be a less shitty person - so don’t be a bigot. Have a fair and rational set of criteria that you use to evaluate each person’s role within the decisional unit.”
The Management Center offers a Layoff Toolkit for Leaders with a checklist for decision-makers, a framework for making decisions about budget cuts and sample guiding principles for making layoff decisions
Recommended Reads:
The Gift of Honest Conversations: Making Transitions Work - Helia's recommendation to start with an “Opt In” convo as one of the best tools when there just isn’t a fit
Netflix Culture Deck - one of Helia’s favorites for how one company thought about their team as their company grew and evolved - not everyone agrees (of course) and there’s a lot of integrity in how they lay this out and set the standards
“Tough News” - Buffer’s layoff announcement - In 2016, the founder and CEO of Buffer published a piece outlining his decision for having to do layoffs at his company. It’s an incredibly thoughtful and transparent look into how the company ended up having to make those particular decisions. It also might be a gold standard for how leaders can take accountability for these types of changes.
Connections:
Nina Jacinto for all things reorgs and layoff planning (as the author of the Layoff Guide) alongside people operations strategy and manager development (reach out with subject line "Helia Connect") on the front end, back end AND just because it really matters
While only licensed in WA State, we have heard great things about The Justice Studio as a legal partner (and would LOVE recommendations for attorneys in their states who really understand social sector considerations.
Helia Collective member Sophia Zisook is another great resource to help think reorgs through - highly recommend!
About the Library Contributor
Nina Jacinto has spent a decade leading people operations in nonprofits and startups, and now provides strategic consulting to organizations and teams. After managing five layoffs in five years, she figured out how to help organizations and their leaders make changes without losing their humanity. She earned her people operations expertise the hard way - and now helps others do hard things with integrity.
Nina started the Long Beach Crochet Club for "introverts who like hobbies" when she moved to the city, has attended members' weddings, and earned 117 five-star reviews for creating community where people actually want to show up. She still uses "cheers" as her email sign-off.
Interested in working together? Email her directly at ninarjacinto@gmail.com, connect with her on LinkedIn, or learn more about her services at ninajacinto.com
This article comes from a coffee chat with Nina in June 2025. These conversations form the heart of the Helia Library – because we've learned the most from doing and from talking with other doers willing to share their wisdom. We don't need to start from blank pages or do everything alone.
As always, take what's helpful, leave what's not, and make it your own.
