{"id":6506,"date":"2025-06-18T14:41:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T14:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=6506"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:48:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:48:48","slug":"how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Tell If Your Employer Sees You as Disposable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration cut almost 300,000 federal jobs in the first four months of 2025 alone, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas. While regular restructurings involving layoffs and churn are commonplace among multinational corporations, it\u2019s rare in the U.S. public sector. It\u2019s been disruptive to government operations and the U.S. economy, not to mention the psychological toll it has taken on federal employees, both those who were cut and their families as well as the survivors.<\/p>\n<p>Academy of Management Scholar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/jacqueline-coyle-shapiro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jaqueline \u201cJackie\u201d Coyle-Shapiro<\/a> of California State University, San Bernardino, and the London School of Economics said that she\u2019s researched the amount and the diversity of changes happening in organizations and to what extent those changes trigger employees to look at their own psychological contract with their employer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen workers hear news that people are being laid off or their supervisor is leaving the organization, that focuses them on their own psychological contract and gets them to think about what they\u2019re giving to and getting from the organization,\u201d Coyle-Shapiro said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause we are facing much more change in terms of organizations and our own work with the increasing reliance on AI, for example, that\u2019s triggering employees to focus on what the give-and-take in their relationship with the organization is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEmployees will pay attention to these triggers, and over the course of time, may experience psychological contract breach, where their employer is breaking a promise to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Periodically culling employees has been common in the corporate world for decades, but it\u2019s only recently that it has crossed over to the U.S. government, where skilled professionals often choose because of stability and good benefits.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, the primary message that the current presidential administration has communicated to government officials is that their jobs are not valued and certainly not secure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt also reflects the disposability of employees, that you can have a job one day and be told by text or email that you no longer have a job,\u201d Coyle-Shapiro said. \u201cWhat organizations need to pay attention to is procedural justice\u2014what procedures are being put in place to decide who\u2019s going to lose their job?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the speed at which employees are losing their jobs, it\u2019s not clear that there are procedures in place that are transparent, where an employee has the opportunity to voice their concerns about the criteria, for example, that\u2019s being used to decide who\u2019s losing their job and who\u2019s not losing their job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis kind of haphazard approach to cutting headcount fits very much into organizations that view employees as disposable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Daniel Butcher The Trump administration cut almost 300,000 federal jobs in the first four months of 2025 alone, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas. While regular restructurings involving layoffs and churn are commonplace among multinational corporations, it\u2019s rare in the U.S. public sector. It\u2019s been disruptive to government operations [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,20,72,78],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-6506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c-suite","category-careers","category-ethics","category-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Tell If Your Employer Sees You as Disposable - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"How to Tell If Your Employer Sees You as Disposable\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-18T14:41:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:48:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":457,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/elon-musk.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"C-SUITE\",\"CAREERS\",\"ETHICS\",\"POLICY\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Tell If Your Employer Sees You as Disposable - 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Previously, he was a writer and the Finance Editor for Strategic Finance magazine and Management Accounting Quarterly, a scholarly journal, at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Prior to that, he worked as a writer\\\/editor at The Financial Times, including daily FT sister publications Ignites and FundFire, as well as Crain Communications\u2019s InvestmentNews and Crain\u2019s Wealth, eFinancialCareers, and Arizent\u2019s Financial Planning, Re:Invent|Wealth, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant, and Money Management Executive. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado Boulder and his master\u2019s degree from New York University. You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/danielbutcher\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/author\\\/daniel-butcher\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Tell If Your Employer Sees You as Disposable - Academy of Management Today","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Daniel Butcher","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/"},"author":{"name":"Daniel Butcher","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c"},"headline":"How to Tell If Your Employer Sees You as Disposable","datePublished":"2025-06-18T14:41:48+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-09T15:48:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/"},"wordCount":457,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp","articleSection":["C-SUITE","CAREERS","ETHICS","POLICY"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/","name":"How to Tell If Your Employer Sees You as Disposable - Academy of Management Today","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp","datePublished":"2025-06-18T14:41:48+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-09T15:48:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp","width":1000,"height":720,"caption":"Elon Musk speaks at event in Paris in 2023.\/Source: Shutterstock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/how-to-tell-if-your-employer-sees-you-as-disposable\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to Tell If Your Employer Sees You as Disposable"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/","name":"Academy of Management Today","description":"Smarter, faster business news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c","name":"Daniel Butcher","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g559188980b254e0e0624aacb72ebc733","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/085e55dd8b6bc186c84fe76ed72735ec1ce8396dff19755de507fb86659a8d08?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Daniel Butcher"},"description":"Daniel Butcher is a writer and the Managing Editor of AOM Today at the Academy of Management (AOM). Previously, he was a writer and the Finance Editor for Strategic Finance magazine and Management Accounting Quarterly, a scholarly journal, at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Prior to that, he worked as a writer\/editor at The Financial Times, including daily FT sister publications Ignites and FundFire, as well as Crain Communications\u2019s InvestmentNews and Crain\u2019s Wealth, eFinancialCareers, and Arizent\u2019s Financial Planning, Re:Invent|Wealth, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant, and Money Management Executive. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado Boulder and his master\u2019s degree from New York University. You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp",1000,720,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp",1000,720,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp",1000,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk-300x216.webp",300,216,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp",800,576,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp",1000,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk.webp",1000,720,false],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk-600x432.webp",600,432,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk-350x450.webp",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elon-musk-100x100.webp",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/c-suite\/\" rel=\"category tag\">C-SUITE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/careers\/\" rel=\"category tag\">CAREERS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/ethics\/\" rel=\"category tag\">ETHICS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/policy\/\" rel=\"category tag\">POLICY<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher The Trump administration cut almost 300,000 federal jobs in the first four months of 2025 alone, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas. While regular restructurings involving layoffs and churn are commonplace among multinational corporations, it\u2019s rare in the U.S. public sector. It\u2019s been disruptive to government operations&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6506"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=6506"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}