Eighteen months ago, a 320-person manufacturer in the Eastern Townships cut nineteen percent of its workforce in a single afternoon. The CEO — we will call her Hélène — asked us to begin coaching the surviving leadership team the following Monday.
What follows is an edited transcript of our most recent conversation, conducted at her plant in May 2025.
“I underestimated how much of leadership, after a layoff, is just being seen in the building.”
Hélène: The first thing I got wrong was assuming the people who stayed felt relief. They didn't. They felt guilt. And guilt does not respond to town halls.
Pierre-Marc: When did you notice the shift?
Hélène: Around month four. I had stopped sending the weekly memo. I had started walking the floor without an agenda. The questions people asked changed — they got smaller, more practical. That was the signal.
What she would do differently
Hélène: I would have named the grief out loud, on day one, in French and in English. I treated the layoff as an operations event. It was a community event.
