《裁员，为什么被裁的是我？》清华经管学院商业伦理案例材料

Foreword:

With the macroeconomic downturn in recent years, news of layoffs has been coming in waves, unsettling countless workers and their families. For anyone who has been through a company layoff, the burning question is always: "With so many colleagues, why was I the one let go?" Was I not working hard enough? Was I not good enough? And what about those who kept their jobs—people I think are clearly less capable than me? Where's the fairness in that? How did the people who decided my fate actually make that call?

This reminds me of a case study I wrote during my time at Tsinghua University for the "Business Ethics Case Competition." It tells the story of how, as the decision-maker responsible for layoffs in my department, I determined who would be on the list. I'm sharing this material now for your reference. Of course, the case has its imperfections and doesn't represent the full caliber of Tsinghua SEM students.

I've chosen a fresh, illustrated style to keep the mood from getting too heavy!

A few days ago, I had dinner with two former colleagues. One was X, a PhD graduate from abroad who had worked at a top multinational company in the US before returning to China to serve as our department's Chief Engineer. The other was L, a senior woman who had been our testing team lead. They're both over a decade older than me, and we were good friends when we worked together. Even after leaving the company at different times, we've stayed in touch. L said, "Last month, we had a reunion with our old colleagues. Everyone's doing really well..." I fell silent. She realized what she'd said and quickly added, "That was so many years ago. It wasn't your fault back then. Of course, people still have their feelings about it—no need to dwell on it." I couldn't help but sink back into those memories...

The Layoff Conversation: Of course, we remained friends after they left

01 Background: The Company's Performance Was Dismal

In 2003, I graduated with a master's degree in computer science at age 25 and officially began my career at a private IT company affiliated with a university. Because I had founded and led a team there during my graduate studies, I was quickly promoted to General Manager of a business unit after joining full-time. I was responsible for a new business line, covering product planning, R&D, sales, and customer service. The department had about 13 people: X led the development team of 6, L led the testing group of 3, plus 2 in sales and 1 in after-sales support. For a company with over 200 employees, we were the smallest department, and our business was still in its startup phase. However, senior management unanimously considered us the most promising unit, strategically important for transforming the company's core business model, which had traditionally relied on custom development for large enterprise clients.

Right at the start of 2004, the company began to experience severe turbulence. Due to terrible performance in 2003, the board was furious and lost confidence in the existing General Manager and executive team. They announced the dismissal of the executive team and the general managers of the larger departments. Through an executive search firm, they hired a new General Manager, Y—a woman in her 30s, reportedly a recent MBA graduate from a prestigious foreign university. She had previously worked at a domestic telecom company and had strong industry connections, which was precisely the target market for our company's core business.

02 The New CEO Decides on Massive Layoffs