""Going back 25 years plus ago, I can still remember every situation that I had to do it in," says Robert Kovach, a work psychologist and former corporate executive. The experience sticks with you, he says. Because it's not just about "operational stress: Have I filled out the forms? Made the calls?" It's also filled with "moral stress," he adds. "Even when the decision is necessary, it can feel like a violation of your own personal values.""
"People laying off their coworkers often feel a clash between their responsibility to their company and their responsibility to be a good person to the people they're laying off-particularly because layoffs are about a company needing to downsize, not always about the individual employee's poor performance. These feelings have been coming up a lot lately, with layoffs reaching a high in 2025, and 2026 already being off to a layoffs-filled start, with Amazon, Pinterest, UPS, Home Depot, Dow, and others announcing cuts so far."
Laying off employees imposes both operational and deep moral stress on managers and leaders, creating persistent emotional memories. Managers often feel anxiety before the event, uncertainty about the right language and timing during delivery, and guilt in the aftermath. The core conflict stems from balancing obligations to the company with a desire to treat affected coworkers humanely, especially when layoffs are organizational rather than performance-based. Rising layoff activity in 2025 and early 2026 has amplified these pressures across industries. Many managers are urged to see layoffs as "just business," yet they continue to experience the events as intensely personal and value-conflicting.
Read at Fast Company
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