Leading After Layoffs: 8 Tips to Rebuild Team Culture
Updated: 4 days ago
On Monday, October 26, Microsoft made a voluntary exit offer available to about 60,000 employees in the U.S., Canada, India and the U.K., Reuters reported. That’s about 27% of the company’s workforce. Eligible employees have until early December to decide, and those who accept will leave on December 31, according to CNBC.
The offer comes as Microsoft spends heavily on AI. CBS News reports that the company expects to put $175 billion into AI infrastructure this year. In a memo to employees, Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said the offer creates “more ways for employees to shape their next chapter.”
It’s also the latest in a long run of reductions. Microsoft cut more than 15,000 jobs in 2025, offered its first voluntary retirement program this spring, and announced 4,800 layoffs in July.
For the people who stay, a voluntary exit can land much like a layoff. Colleagues leave, their work stays behind, and everyone still there may be quietly wondering whether they’re safe. Managers carry an extra layer, because many of them are eligible for the offer too. They’re steadying their teams while deciding about their own futures.
You don’t have to work at Microsoft to recognize this moment. If your organization has cut staff through layoffs, buyouts or both, the team that’s left is carrying something real. In a report published by the SHRM Foundation, management researcher Wayne Cascio describes this as survivor syndrome. Morale, loyalty and trust in management can decline after downsizing, while stress and intentions to quit rise, partly because people lose a sense of control over their own lives.
A SHRM article on layoffs and trust says that state “does not resolve with a single team meeting or a reassuring email from senior leadership.” What helps is how managers lead in the weeks that follow. These eight practices are where I’d start.
1. Stay grounded before you lead others
Your team takes its cues from you, especially in the first days after an announcement. Before hard conversations, notice what you’re feeling and name it, even if only to yourself. Grounded leaders still have strong emotions. They understand them well enough that the emotions don’t run the conversation.
If you’re also weighing your own future, get support for yourself. Talk to a coach, use your Employee Assistance Program, or find a peer who understands what you’re carrying. Sandra Moran of WorkForce Software told SHRM that organizations should set up peer-to-peer conversations among frontline managers so they feel connected and can work through this together.
2. Acknowledge the loss
Don’t act as if nothing happened. Tell your team plainly that people they worked with are gone and that it’s normal to feel sad, angry or unsettled. When you say it first, people don’t have to process it alone.
Let people stay connected to the colleagues who left, too. HR leader Barbie Winterbottom told SHRM it’s healthy for people to reach out to former co-workers to check in and say hello. People also watch how their former colleagues are treated on the way out. A SHRM article on outplacement notes that survivors “closely monitor the treatment of those who are leaving.” If your organization is offering severance, job search help or references, tell your team.
3. Tell the story that gives the change meaning
After a layoff, people fill the silence with their own stories, and those stories are often worse than the truth. In Pressure-Proof Teams™, I write about sense-making as a leadership skill. Your job is to give people context: what happened, why it happened, and what it means for this team now.
Be specific. SHRM’s trust article warns that vague messaging about “difficult decisions” and “business needs” makes things worse, because “specificity signals respect.” People need enough information to understand the decision, not a polished explanation that leaves the important questions unanswered.
Be honest about what you don’t know. SHRM President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. advises managers to “be careful not to make any promises of job security” if more cuts are possible. A broken promise does more damage than “We don’t know yet.” Ask what’s still unclear, come back with answers, and tell the story again next week. People take in hard news in pieces.
4. Reset the work and the priorities
Fewer people can’t do the same amount of work without something changing. When the team gets smaller and the workload doesn’t, pressure lands on individuals, often whoever says yes most. In Pressure-Proof Teams™, I talk about building team structures that absorb, manage and distribute pressure so it doesn’t pile up on a few people. A priority reset is where that starts.
Meet with your team to decide:
What matters most right now?
What can wait?
What will stop, or be handed off later?
Who owns the work that remains?
Write the decisions down and share them so everyone is working from the same list. Moran told SHRM that leaders should give managers permission to say “No, for now” to work that doesn’t need to be reassigned right away. And when people do take on more, Taylor advises telling them whether the added workload “is temporary or will be an ongoing expectation for them.”
5. Model healthy work habits
Your team learns what’s really expected by watching you. If you send emails at midnight, people may assume they should be online at midnight too. Log off at a reasonable hour, take your time off, and say out loud that you expect the same from them.
The same goes for senior leaders. SHRM’s trust article notes that when senior leaders are visibly unaffected while frontline employees bear the cost, “a credibility gap forms that communication alone cannot close.” People notice whether the pressure is shared fairly, or passed down.
6. Point out progress every week
Name one specific thing the team got done. A finished project, a problem solved, or good feedback from a client all count. It shows people the team can still move forward together.
Keep the recognition grounded in real effort and outcomes. Acknowledge who contributed, including the less visible work that keeps the team moving. This isn’t a substitute for dealing with workload or uncertainty. It’s one way to help people see what’s still working while you address what needs to change.
7. Talk about the future honestly
Skip the forced optimism and the pep talk. Tell people where the team is headed, what’s still undecided, and what role each person plays in getting there. People can feel loss and still have hope at the same time.
If you don’t have an answer, say so and explain when you’ll return to the question. Then follow through. That steady rhythm of sharing what you know, naming what you don’t, and returning with updates helps people make decisions without asking them to trust promises you can’t keep.
8. Decide together what culture you want to build
After a layoff, a team’s culture changes whether anyone plans it or not. In a team meeting, ask three questions: What do we want to keep? What should we leave behind? What do we need to start? That way, the team chooses its culture together instead of drifting into one.
Make room for voices that may have less influence in the conversation. Ask whose workload has grown, whose concerns haven’t been heard, and how decisions are affecting people differently across roles or teams. Build in time for people to connect, too.
Kayla Lebovits of Bundle Benefits told SHRM that social time helps people form new working relationships and eases feelings of loss.
Culture after a layoff gets rebuilt one choice at a time. Make the first one this week.
If your organization has been through cuts and you want support for the managers and teams who stayed, contact Wilson and Associates to talk about what your people need. You can also learn more about Pressure-Proof Teams, a practical framework for building teams that can navigate pressure with care and clarity.
Wilson and Associates Coaching and Consulting, LLC, an 18-year-old leadership development and organizational culture firm based in Los Angeles. Their work helps leaders practice pressure-proof leadership skills and build teams that can navigate change, uncertainty, conflict, and pressure effectively.
