The power imbalance that can crush individuals
15th October, 2024
By Jenny Herrera, CEO of the Good Business Charter
Imagine this: you’re sitting at your desk, in the middle of your workday, when suddenly you receive a meeting request. It’s a Zoom call, brief and cold. No warning, no indication of what’s to come. Within minutes, you’re told that your job no longer exists. No reason given, no chance to discuss it. You’re instructed not to contact your colleagues and barred from entering the office again. It’s like your years of service are wiped out in the span of 10 minutes. This happened to someone I know, and I’m certain it’s happening to many more.
The reality is that employment, unlike most relationships, holds a stark power imbalance. When we think of a job, we often imagine it as a relationship between two parties. But it’s not between two people—it’s between a single individual and a faceless corporation. The individual signs a contract with the business, and when that contract is ended, the decision often comes down not from a person but from a cold, impersonal entity. And it’s this inherent imbalance that leaves workers feeling helpless, especially when employment decisions are made without transparency or empathy.
The disconnection of larger corporations
Nowhere is this power imbalance more evident than in the larger businesses where those employment decisions are being fronted by a distant HR department, that might even be housed in a different building or location than the individual employee. Small business owners know their employees by name and know something of their lives. In contrast, a big business’s HR department can easily see their workforce as merely names, or worse still, numbers.
So, government proposals to look at legislating against ‘fire and rehire’ and giving rights to an employee from the start of their employment rather than waiting for two years first, are a welcome protection for workers but above all, there is a need to keep the human element at the forefront.
The Real Impact on Employees
The recent rise in redundancy numbers paints a troubling picture. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK redundancy rate increased to 4.6 per thousand people in early 2024, the highest since 2021. Between November 2023 and January 2024, 133,000 redundancies were made in the UK, up from 116,000 in the previous quarter. While many of these decisions may have followed legal protocols, the emotional toll on individuals is often overlooked.
The sense of being disposable and worthless
Life is uncertain but when we are in a permanent job, we operate with a certain level of stability in our lives. Salary comes in, expenses go out, there is a regularity to our weeks and a huge chunk of our time filled with our employment.
A sudden redundancy just before Christmas without any acknowledgement of the impact of that on finances as well as general wellbeing is something we should not be seeing in 21st century Britain. It is hard to put into words the impact on someone’s self-esteem with the added harm caused of almost treating someone like a criminal – they can’t enter the premises, they can’t talk to colleagues. Is it any surprise someone in this situation wonders what they have done wrong?
The terrible cycle of last in, first out
Businesses do need to make redundancies from time to time, even good ones. Yet, when it is made by a faceless corporation, bypassing the consulting period set out in law, individual people become numbers and too often the decision is made as to who is cheapest to make redundant. Usually those who have been with the company for the shortest amount of time, with the added benefit to the company that they also won’t be able to claim for unfair dismissal if they have been in post less than two years (rights to claim for unfair dismissal from day one are part of the proposals for the Employment Rights Bill).
I know someone who was made redundant three times in around seven years – I imagine there are many caught in this cycle, not because they are bad at their job but because they are the newest employee in the company. Yet this can be soul-destroying and will impact on a person’s physical and mental health which of course brings added pressure to the struggling NHS.
As you enter a new workplace you carry a pervading sense of worry that it may happen again, further impacting on health and wellbeing.
The crushing sense of powerlessness
The individual is left on the outside, forbidden from making contact, instructed what to do in order to receive any compensation – and to do it within a very short period of time. They are not experts in employment law so must be guided by others, usually people they have never met before, to explain the infamous non-disclosure agreement.
With 1 in 3 of the poorest fifth of households in the UK holding less than £250 in savings, those on the lowest wages cannot afford to take a stand on the matter and therefore it becomes Hobson’s Choice whether they sign the NDA or not – and once signed they cannot tell of their horrible experience. The powerful corporation closes ranks and moves on, untainted and unimpacted by its behaviour.
Even if an individual felt minded to take them to the tribunal, the wait is 12-18 months long and is likely to require huge investment of time and energy to fight, up against the well-resourced corporation. You only have to follow the Post Office Horizon saga to know that is true. Very few have the resolve and determination of Alan Bates.
We wait to see what the Single Enforcement Body can offer in this space. In 2021 BEIS stated: “this body will not just protect workers, it will also help to provide a level playing field for the majority of employers who respect the law, and who also lose out when unscrupulous businesses cut corners and exploit workers”. That would be very welcome.
The solution – people culture
The reality is that even with the planned legislative changes individuals will still experience unexplained redundancy without proper processes. The P&O situation (where the whole UK team was fired and replaced with cheaper workers from overseas) may not be repeated but I believe individuals will continue to find themselves silenced and paid off by powerful companies unless there is a real groundswell of culture change that really champions people.
Where all employees truly have a voice in the workplace and feel included, where the whole culture of the organisation is to be intentional about people’s wellbeing, where the people leading a company recognise they are only as good as their workforce, things will be different. They will be different because the whole way redundancies are approached will be with people in mind, where foremost in the mind of the HR manager or line manager running difficult meetings will be how to ensure the person across the room is cared for appropriately. Where the maxim ‘do to others as you would have done to you’ is at work.
That is not to say good businesses won’t need to make people redundant, or dismiss those who are not fulfilling their employment contract. But when these things are dealt with properly, above board, guided by expert organisations such as ACAS and CIPD, and transparent with everyone in the workforce, everyone will come out of the situation better, both the individual – given time to process the information and understand why them and given appropriate support, care and an apology – and the rest of the team left behind who are given chance to say farewell but also know if it ever came to be them one day, they would be treated with dignity and respect.
I wonder if our struggle for productivity in this nation has anything to do with workforces who have lost respect for how their company deals with them as people, and now content themselves with doing the bare minimum in the workplace. I know I would find it hard to be motivated if I saw a colleague suddenly ushered out the door without any notice nor sense of compassion.