Layoffs Are Never Neutral: How to Rebuild Trust in Their Aftermath

I once worked with a client who survived a sudden round of layoffs at their company. While many assume the “lucky ones” feel relief, the reality is far darker: they don’t feel safe anymore.

Layoffs leave deep organizational wounds, and the emotional toll on employees—both those who remain and those who leave—lasts far longer than most leaders are willing to acknowledge. For managers and HR teams delivering the life-altering news, it’s equally scarring. Layoffs aren’t just a business decision; they’re an event that shakes the very foundation of workplace trust.

White Supremacy Culture & Layoffs

Layoffs across U.S. sectors have soared to levels not seen since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. This isn’t happening in a vacuum: we live in a racist, capitalist society where profits are prioritized over people. Companies will always make decisions that protect their bottom line, even if it comes at the human cost of their workforce. In fact, the Harvard Business Review reported, “Layoffs are so embedded in business as a short-term solution for lowering costs that managers ignore the fact that they create more problems than they solve.” 

And yet, we have to sit with a complicated truth: not all layoffs are driven by greed or shareholder value. Smaller organizations, especially nonprofits and mission-driven groups, are often collateral damage in an economy starved of public funding and reliant on donors who themselves are being squeezed. For these organizations, layoffs aren’t about padding pockets — they’re about survival. But even then, how layoffs are carried out matters.

DEI & Layoffs: The Conversation We’re Afraid to Have

Talking about layoffs through a DEI lens feels taboo precisely because layoffs are inherently inequitable. But silence doesn’t erase the reality: layoffs disproportionately harm people of color —  especially women of color — who are already underpaid, undervalued, and treated as expendable in the workplace.

Bias doesn’t disappear when companies make staffing cuts. It intensifies. When you scratch beneath the surface of who is chosen to stay versus who is cut, White Supremacy Culture rears its head: favoritism, opaque decision-making, and “neutral” criteria (like tenure or performance scores) that are already tainted by systemic inequities.

Uprooting White Supremacy Culture during layoffs can look like:

• Redistribute from the top. If executives are making exponentially more than staff, can they temporarily forgo bonuses or benefits to preserve jobs? 

• Cut the fat before cutting people. Slash unnecessary spending on travel, vanity (no pun intended) events, or perks before touching payroll.

• Audit your criteria for bias. If you’re basing cuts on seniority or “performance,” examine who those metrics actually harm. Do they disproportionately target Black women? Disabled workers? Caregivers?

• Design equitable exits. If layoffs are truly unavoidable, provide robust severance, extended healthcare, outplacement services, and a process that treats people with dignity instead of disposal.

Rebuilding After Layoffs: Repairing What’s Been Broken

If you’ve exhausted every option and still have to move forward with layoffs, the work doesn’t end there. Rebuilding trust is non-negotiable. Without transparency, those left behind will operate under a cloud of fear: Am I next? Can I trust leadership? Is this organization even stable?

Leaders must meet that fear head-on with radical transparency. That means:

• Naming the reasons for the layoffs plainly—no jargon, no corporate spin.

• Providing clear updates on the organization’s financial health and future strategy.

• Creating intentional spaces for staff to process, ask hard questions, and receive honest answers.

Layoffs don’t just disrupt payroll — they disrupt culture. If you’re not prepared to actively repair that rupture, your organization will lose talent, morale, and trust long after the last severance check clears.

The Bottom Line

Equitable layoffs may sound like an oxymoron, but equity is proven in the hardest moments, not the easiest ones. If your organization claims to value diversity, equity, and inclusion, those values must show up when it’s inconvenient — when tough decisions are on the table and people’s livelihoods hang in the balance.

Otherwise, you’re not dismantling White Supremacy Culture. You’re upholding it.