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That is part of the reason why knowledge management has grown so much
over the last two or three years.

Before anyone leaves the firm the minimum is to ask:

n How will we capture and use all the information that only exists in
our people’s brains?

n How will we recognize what is important?

n How will we record what is important and ensure that it is
communicated to all who need to know?

n How will we ensure that those who receive the information are in
an emotional state to use it?

I hope that you consider the last question to be a strange one. I added
it to introduce a more complex and insidious disease to which the down-
sized organization is prone. The immediate effects of downsizing among
the survivors include a healthy wish to get and keep their heads down,
thank their lucky stars that they still have a job and assume any and all
additional responsibilities in the hope that the axe, should it be wielded
again, will miss them a second time. Sooner or later, however, another syn-
drome strikes.

The Auschwitz syndrome

People do more work usually for no more pay. They know of one-time col-
leagues and friends who are still suffering from the pain of unemployment.
They begin to feel guilty that, in taking on additional responsibility they
have been complicit in the problems experienced by their former work-
mates. They feel guilty and guilt, as any psychiatrist knows, must be trans-
ferred to someone or something else if it is not to fester and cause serious
emotional damage. They begin to blame the company for their new feelings
of emotional discomfort. They review the unfairness of their employer in
that they are expected to do more without recompense. Unthinking man-
agers or supervisors meet any complaints with the mantra: “think yourself
lucky that you still have a job”. Discontent increases to the level where it
must have an outlet. When it seems safe to do so they start to engage in
small acts of sabotage against the firm. Anything from goofing off to steal-
ing stationery supplies to failing to carry out an essential activity serves
and to them any such action “serves the company right”. To mitigate the
effects of the Auschwitz syndrome you may want to consider or ask the fol-
lowing questions.

n What can we do to enable survivors to recognize that we genuinely
have done all that we can for those who have lost their jobs?

n How can we ensure that survivors are recognized and compensated
for taking on additional responsibilities when money is short?

n How can we give survivors new skills that they will be motivated to
employ in the service of the firm?

The best use of the best people 59