Stay on the call after the bad news
Redundancies and rejections are usually delivered and then immediately followed by everyone logging off.
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The BeingKind editorsPublished How this is written
Why it lands
The worst part of bad professional news is rarely the news; it is the twenty minutes afterwards, alone, with nobody to say it out loud to. Colleagues avoid it because they do not know what to say and fear making it worse. Staying is not about having the right words — there are none — it is about the person not having to sit in an empty room reconstructing the conversation on their own.
How
Message rather than call, so they can choose: “I'm around for the next hour if you want to talk, and equally fine if you don't.” If they take it up, ask about the practicalities — money, notice, references — which is where the actual fear is and what nobody offers to help with.
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