TED Talks Daily
Sunday Pick: Unsolicited Advice: How to handle layoffs with care | from Fixable
29 Mar 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, TED Talks Daily listeners, I'm Elise Hu. Today, we have an episode of another podcast from the TED Audio Collective, handpicked by us for you. It's unfortunately a part of the news cycle that doesn't seem to end. Mass layoffs. When an organization lays people off, those who remain are often scrambling to find their footing in an environment that no longer feels stable.
So today we're sharing a 2025 episode from our show Fixable, where hosts Frances Fry and Anne Morris try to set the record straight about what layoffs mean for an organization and the responsibility leaders have to own what went wrong. Whatever you're dealing with at work, Fixable is there to help, offering actionable insights to create meaningful change in your life and workplace.
Listen to Fixable wherever you get your podcasts. And if you have a problem you want fixed, call their hotline at 234-FIXABLE. That's 234-349-2253 to leave Anne and Francis a voicemail with your workplace problem. Learn more about the TED Audio Collective at audiocollective.ted.com. Now on to the episode right after a quick break.
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Chapter 2: What is the impact of layoffs on remaining employees?
Welcome to Fixable from the TED Audio Collective. I'm your host, Anne Morris. And I'm your co-host, Frances Fry. This week, we're bringing you another edition of Unsolicited Advice, where we give advice to people who didn't ask us for it. Well, who's our lucky recipient today? Well, Frances, today's unsolicited advice isn't totally unsolicited.
We want to address a question we see so often in our show inbox, which is what to do after your company experiences a layoff. Today, we want to talk to the people who have to pick up the pieces the next day. Senior leaders, managers, HR teams. Oh, we get this question all the time. All the time. Yeah, we've coached a lot of leaders and organizations through this one.
I also want to acknowledge that as we record this, there are whole public sector organizations and organizations that rely on government funding that are confronting large-scale layoffs and disruption right now as the Trump administration works to reshape government.
For those of you listening out there who are impacted and looking for work, we're thinking about you and the people who depend on you. We hope you'll listen to our episode from last season on job seekers and find something there that is helpful to you. The headline on our advice is to not do this alone. Your real enemy right now is isolation.
So build a community to help you get through this difficult time. You're going to get to the other side, we promise.
Absolutely. This kind of disruption to your life is a team sport.
And Frances, in a future episode, we hope to give unsolicited advice to the architects of these decisions. Surprising to no one, our point of view is that move fast and break things is not the right approach here. Does that mean we're going to give Elon advice?
Yeah, we'd love to give Elon some advice and his boss and the Republican Party, because this is not just about one or two men at the top, which is how this story is being told. We gave advice to the Democratic Party last year, and it only seems fair to include our Republican friends as well.
I do love symmetry. It's just balanced. We're just going for fair and balanced, Frances.
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Chapter 3: What advice do leaders need after a layoff?
And I love your advice to start with explicitly, unambiguously owning it. This, I made a mistake and it was not free, both for the good people leaving and the good people staying.
Exactly right. And then my subtext is an AI can help people use your own products. AI can help. Yeah. I would expect. That the organizations or the parts of organizations that have really digested AI would be able to anticipate these much better than the rest of us using the old fashioned whoops.
Yeah, well, I think that bridges to the second point, which is, OK, own your historic mistake. Now bring us into the present tense. What is the plan, right? What is the plan to not make this mistake going forward? But what is the plan period? Because now you have a smaller workforce looking at all of its options for employment. So you gotta make the case first
for staying and for really leaning in. So what's your plan? What's the update? What's the new strategy? What's the plan for better execution? What else, besides letting people go, is the company doing to position itself to win?
And I think it's really important to do it in that kind of context, because as our dear friend and colleague Tom DeLonge always advises, all ambiguous information, just assume it's being interpreted negatively.
Right.
So you have to fill in the story.
I think about that bumper sticker all the time. All ambiguous information is interpreted negatively. We have a negativity bias. So if you want us to think positively about something, you have to be crystal clear about it.
Yeah. And I think optimism is really essential here, but it's hard to get to optimism with ambiguous information. So I think after we've apologized, we got to get to work on convincing people that we've got this.
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Chapter 4: What are the long-term consequences of repeated layoffs?
And it has when I've been in this situation. Yeah. of having to lead people through layoffs. Amy Cuddy calls this surge capacity when she talks about this challenge. So how do you solve for your own surge capacity? And it requires deep intention and deep care of yourself in order for you to be of service to the human beings around you.
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Fixable is brought to you by the TED Audio Collective and Pushkin Industries. It's hosted by me, Anne Morris. And me, Frances Frey. This episode was produced by Rahima Nassa from Pushkin Industries. Our team includes Constanza Gallardo, Banban Chang, Daniela Balareso, and Roxanne Heilash.
And our show was mixed by Louis at StoryYard.