A reminder to check in on your surplused colleagues

Now that WFA is in full swing, some of the dynamics playing out in our workplaces are becoming hard to witness. For those of us whose positions haven't been affected, it can be tempting to keep our heads down and carry on, but I've noticed something worth talking about.

Has the way you communicate with your colleagues who've been made surplus changed? Not dramatically, not cruelly, but maybe noticeably? The easy back-and-forth that used to happen naturally, has it gone a little quiet? Do interactions that were once warm now feel clipped or obligatory? Are you replying to their Teams messages with a thumbs up rather than a personal response?

I get that it's awkward. Nobody knows what to say. In some cases teams have been instructed to limit operational contact. Many affected employees have also been encouraged to work from home, which adds physical distance on top of everything else. It's easy for that distance to become the default, a quiet drift that nobody planned but nobody pushed back on either.

Some of us also have increased workloads and greater ambiguity regarding future reductions. It's definitely a tough time all around. We don't always have the time to think about much more then the next email or deadline.

But I wonder if we've stopped to think about what that feels like for those who have months or weeks left to work. Being quietly frozen out by the people they've worked alongside for years adds another layer to that loss.

They're still here. Still showing up. Still the same people they were before the announcement. The least we can do is treat them that way.

It doesn't take much. A real reply to a message. Reaching out on Teams just to check in. Acknowledging someone the same way you always did. Small things that say their value was never just their position.

It costs nothing to be the person who made a hard time a little easier to get through. And it's worth remembering that how we treat people in difficult moments tends to say more about us than we think it does. Times are tough right now for all of us. Try to show up for your colleagues the way you would want to be supported if you were in their position.