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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

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Adam Cohen wrote a piece that appeared in Saturday's New York Times headlined: "Are Cuts in Hours and Pay an Alternative to Mass Layoffs?" Here's an excerpt.

"Mass layoffs produce big winners and losers. Most workers who remain are financially unscathed, even though their employer is struggling. Wages are actually expected to increase 3.5 percent in 2009. Those laid off are left with no salary and, because the job market is so brutal, risk losing their homes and being unable to put food on the table."

This is a good piece that performs a useful purpose. For over a century, mass layoffs have been the primary way that businesses dealt with tough times.

And for more than a century it worked pretty well, if all that you considered were the economics. The cost of laying off workers was not high. When times got good, they were still around and waiting to be re-hired.

Today mass layoffs are a bad economic strategy for several reasons. The cost of layoffs has gone up. The cost of re-hiring has gone up. And the workforce is different.

Today most companies are part of the knowledge economy. In a knowledge economy, knowledge and relationships are the source of sustainable competitive advantage. And those belong to the people you're about to lay off.

Today it makes good business sense to keep your workforce intact as much as you can. It's always made good sense to share the sacrifice.

Cohen gets most of that, but he comes up short on the range of options. It's not just mass layoffs versus across-the-board pay cuts.

Options include voluntary time off, job sharing, job shifting, and even voluntary pay cuts. Those are strategies you can see at work in the companies that have traditionally avoided mass layoffs. SC Johnson, Lincoln Electric, Toyota, and Nucor are some examples.

Cohen also comes up short on the social and emotional reasons why mass layoffs are often a bad idea. If sacrifice isn't shared across the company and throughout the org chart, it isn't really shared.

What I learned studying companies that have avoided mass layoffs for my free Special Report on Managing Headcount in a Downturn, is that all the people in the company can be part of solution. Sharing sacrifice is important, sensible and noble. But without a sharing of control, it's just something done to you.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

Request your free copy of Wally's Special Report: Managing Headcount in a Downturn.

Request your free copy of "Meeting the Challenges of the Boomer Brain Drain: An integrated approach."

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.