I work at a mid-size agency and manage a team of 10 copywriters. Business is down — not catastrophically so, but enough that I anticipate layoffs are very possible in the next couple months. I haven’t been told that outright but I’ve been asked enough questions by leadership about my team that it’s feeling like a foregone conclusion. So fellow CDs…is there a tactful way to give your team a very loose heads up to get their books together, or would you avoid doing that so as not to incite panic?

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In your next team meeting, be transparent and say business has been softening so there may be a need to make tough decisions later this year. You don’t have to frame it as an emergency but you can say you’d like to be open with everyone. Best case scenario is they get their books together and one or two find new jobs on their own so you can mitigate the impact to your team.

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I was at big agency for almost 10 years - and forged a pretty tight relationship with almost all of my senior leadership. This was 2020 and we had already gone through a couple rounds of layoffs. Out of the blue I was put on a “chat” and I joined the call and it was my manager and my ECD. They said it’s just us, there’s no HR here, and preceded to tell me unless something turned around, I had 3 months before I and many other CDs were let go (we lost a big client). That heads up meant so much to me. Not only did I appreciate it, I still kept my shit on point and acted the way I always did until it was “my time”. I understood this was a business decision only and not my fault given this pretty long lead time. I ended up being saved because of how I handled this situation, but I was also prepared to go it on my own mentally. Maybe you can do this for someone else.

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If you feel like it’s a foregone conclusion then I can tell you the paperwork is already being drafted. FYI, all layoffs for the year must be complete by end of October so the P&L is actualized for 2024. If they wait until December then they have a fiscal year that ends in March. If no one is talking about it to you then you and your teams are in the direct line of fire especially if any of that business softening is in your group.

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