This may be a good time to lay-off staff.
I say that not because I want people laid-off but because I am always alarmed at the distressing cost of litigating unlawful termination cases. In a time when your legal defense can be: a decline in sales, a vast number of lay-offs in your industry, or anything else to do with economic decline, we all have good cover for lay-offs.
Laying off staff in good times may always be warranted because plenty of staff is excessive. But the cost of litigating unlawful termination cases is always problematic. On the other hand, periods of rising unemployment are the periods when plaintiffs lawyers know they have the least chance of winning an unlawful termination case.
Now is the time to do it. Join the crowd.
Hey, note to all you lobbyists, legislators and do gooders who think you are helping workers by creating special protected classes of workers (seniors, gays and minorities): you are making them more vulnerable to firing in down-turns and less likely to be hired in the first place.