SmallBusinessNewz

Getting rid of an employee (or more than one) can be a tricky thing, regardless of whether it's a layoff or a performance- or attitude-related firing.  And a recent development involving Microsoft and Google proved this point, highlighting why businesses should proceed with caution.

Last week, Chris Crum noted that former employees may represent security risks.  Don Dodge, who was laid off from Microsoft, did more to damage his former employer's reputation after Google offered him a job.  Dodge wrote an 850-word blog post putting several of Google's products (and its corporate attitude) far above Microsoft's alternatives.

Dodge worked for Microsoft for almost five years, so his words carry a lot of weight.  Since he's made a whole lot of friends in the tech world, his words are receiving a lot of attention, too.

Here's what may be the key point, then: make sure employees know why they're getting cut.  Dodge wrote, "[L]aying off 5,000 people when you have $37B in cash and huge profits is not cool," signaling that this apparently wasn't made clear to him.  And resentment ensued.

Of course, it can be debated whether or not Microsoft had a good reason for making layoffs, and any time you separate a person from his or her income, warm fuzzies aren't likely to result.  This incident just goes to show that a little heart-to-heart with departing employees might save you a lot of bad publicity.