--- title: "Stripe’s Best Practices for Employee Layoff: A Blueprint for Psychological Safety" url: https://amplifydei.com/stripe-best-practices-for-employee-layoff/ date: 2023-06-25 modified: 2025-05-28 author: "Vivian Acquah" description: "In this ‘Go2Thrive Let’s Humanize the Workplace’ conversation, co-hosts Vivian Acquah CDE® and Mary Jane Roy share what has brought them together: a combination of friendship, collegiality, and mutual interest..." categories: - "Duurzame Bedrijfspraktijken en Inclusief Leiderschap Blog" - "Export - Employee Resource Groups and Inclusive Workplace Culture" - "Mensgerichte Podcast: LEIDERSCHAP EN Inclusie bij Werk" - "Organizational Success and Diversity Training with Inclusive Facilitation" - "Psychological Safety en Cultuurverbetering via Inclusieve Leiderschap" tags: - "advisor" - "artificial intelligence" - "board of directors" - "bonus" - "Building a More Inclusive Organisation Through Equity and Leadership" - "Building Cultural Intelligence in the Workplace for Equity" - "Certified Diversity Executive" - "Chat GPT" - "Company Culture" - "constructive feedback" - "corporate" - "creativity" - "departing employees" - "different departments" - "Diversity and Inclusion Podcast over Inclusive Leadership" - "Diversity Equity Inclusion" - "Dutch company" - "emotional agility" - "employee retention" - "employment practices" - "Enhance Employee Resource Groups and DEI Training for Better Inclusion" - "equity" - "Facebook" - "Facebook/Meta" - "facilitator" - "healthcare" - "hiring practices" - "humanizetheworkplace" - "intersection" - "layoffs" - "Leadership and Advocacy in DEI – Insights from Vivian Acquah" - "Let's Humanize the Workplace" - "love" - "managers" - "Mannen als Bondgenoten: Diversiteitsinitiatieven en Leiderschap" - "Mary Jane Roy" - "massive layoffs" - "Meta" - "mistakes" - "monthly conversation" - "open vacancies" - "Organisatie Succes met Inclusieve Leiderschap en Cultuurontwikkeling" - "popular culture" - "positive feedback" - "psychological safety" - "Psychological Safety & Cultural Intelligence in Inclusive Leadership" - "PTO" - "resilience" - "reskill" - "respect" - "separation" - "service awards" - "severance pay" - "skills" - "strengths" - "stress" - "Stripe" - "Stripe CEO" - "techies" - "termination process" - "trainer" - "Transformative Leadership & Psychological Safety for Innovation" - "universities" - "upper management" - "vulnerability" - "workplace culture" - "workplace wellness" image: https://amplifydei.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Stripe-Best-Practices-for-Employee-Layoff-1024x576.jpg word_count: 649 --- # Stripe’s Best Practices for Employee Layoff: A Blueprint for Psychological Safety In this ‘Go2Thrive Let’s Humanize the Workplace’ conversation, co-hosts [Vivian Acquah CDE®](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianacquah/) and [Mary Jane Roy](https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryjaneroy/) share what has brought them together: a combination of friendship, collegiality, and mutual interest in bringing more humanizing practices to the workplace. *Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase,* *I'll earn a commission at no additional cost to you. * Table of Contents[[Open]](javascript:;)[[Close]](javascript:;)- Key Takeaways - Valuing Departing Employees- Layoffs- How You Made Them Feel - Maya Angelou- Stripe Layoff Blueprint- Need support in Amplifying DEI from within?- Latest Post ### Key Takeaways - *Being laid off is a traumatic experience and should be done with care and compassion.* - *(HR) Managers responsible for layoffs are in a tough position and should receive support.* - *When handling employee terminations, transparency, and psychological safety should be prioritized.* - I*t's all about making people feel valued and supported, even in difficult situations.* - *Take a look at examples of CEOs who demonstrated good leadership by valuing the contributions of departing employees*. ### Valuing Departing Employees We talk about the importance of valuing departing employees, offering support, and considering other options like reskilling or repositioning before letting them go. We also look at some positive examples, like Stripe and Facebook/Meta, and discuss the need for companies to admit their mistakes and show vulnerability.  ### Layoffs The focus of this conversation is all about how to handle employee terminations and layoffs with dignity and respect. We highlight some of the differences in the major tech layoffs that have been taking place since June 2022. A video created by actress/comedian Aiyyo Shraddha, which went viral on social media, shares eloquently (and satirically) her unique perspective on work culture. She jokes about how companies claim to be families yet lay off employees without a second thought. Aiyyo finds it amusing that companies give out service awards, and then a week later, those same employees may not have access to the company's network.  ### How You Made Them Feel - Maya Angelou Vivian shares the traumatic experience of a friend of hers upon being fired. It made Vivian think of the well-known Maya Angelou quote:* “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”* Companies would do well to remember how these ex-employees are going to remember them. *How *they would like to be remembered is the question they should be asking themselves. (HR) managers need to have the right skills and means to support the employee who is leaving and especially during times of massive layoffs.  To put the layoffs in perspective, we show a number of well-known companies and the percentage of employees they had laid off. Amazon laid off ‘only’ 1% of its employees, but when looking at [Trueup Layoffs Chart](https://www.trueup.io/layoffs), this represented 18,000 individuals.  [![](https://amplifydei.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image-1024x676.png)](https://www.trueup.io/layoffs) ### Stripe Layoff Blueprint [Stripe](https://stripe.com/en-nl/newsroom/news/ceo-patrick-collisons-email-to-stripe-employees) is a great example of a company that showed compassion to its employees. They offered a supportive exit strategy, including the CEO transparently announcing the departure of employees, expressing appreciation, and creating an alumni email address. ![](https://amplifydei.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image-1-1024x875.png) More concretely, they also provided 14 weeks of severance pay, bonuses that were owed, Paid Time Off employees were due, healthcare, career support to connect departing employees with other companies, extra large Stripe discounts for anyone who decides to start a new business now or in the future, and not least important - immigration support.  ![](https://amplifydei.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image-2.png) Do watch/ listen to the full recording to capture all the salient points, and tune in every month for more great conversations about workplace culture! ### Need support in Amplifying DEI from within? ![Amplify DEI Cards](https://amplifydei.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Amplify-DEI-Self-Team-Cards-1-1024x576.jpg) The [Amplify DEI Card decks](https://card.amplifydei.com/) are designed to support you in creating more inclusive environments and encouraging conversation. Increase your self and team awareness with the [Amplify DEI Cards](https://card.amplifydei.com/). [***Click here to learn more about the Amplify DEI Cards***](https://card.amplifydei.com/). ### Latest Post [The Importance of Inclusive Office Design - Combating Exclusion & Boosting Employee Engagement](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-inclusive-office-design-combating-vivian-acquah-cde-/?trackingId=gD4xcydvTS6xv2UqJNO1dA%3D%3D) [Ageism in the Spotlight: Lessons from the Tina Turner Documentary](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ageism-spotlight-lessons-from-tina-turner-documentary-acquah-cde-/)