The Survivors

Why the real cost of layoffs is not severance but the performance collapse of those who stay

When a company announces layoffs, nearly all the attention goes to those who leave: severance packages, outplacement programmes, legal disputes. But the true cost of a layoff is not paid by those who depart — it is paid by those who remain. Organisational psychologists call this “layoff survivor syndrome”: the anxious, paralysing, trust-eroding state that grips employees who survived the cut but have no idea how long their reprieve will last.

In 2025, Kahoot and Researchscape surveyed 1,064 respondents in a comprehensive study on the organisational damage caused by the survivor experience. The numbers are devastating — and most employers do not even track them.

Symptoms of the syndrome

The first experience of survivors is disorientation. In the opening days — when former colleagues are still clearing their desks, when the empty workstation stares back like a silent accusation — survivors receive a fundamentally contradictory message: “You were chosen to stay, but nobody told you why.” Then, as the diminished teams attempt to process the same workload with fewer hands, the strain begins to wear down self-esteem by the end of the first week.

According to the Kahoot 2025 study:

• 65 percent of survivors made costly errors after the layoff — due to a lack of training and transitional support
• 73 percent received no structured re-onboarding for their new responsibilities
• 70 percent said structured re-onboarding would have helped, but only 27 percent actually received it
• 49 percent reported a decline in morale and engagement
• 77 percent observed increased errors and severity among their teammates

Gen Z employees are especially vulnerable: 77 percent felt the impact most acutely, and three in four seriously considered leaving.

Organisational trust collapses

Dig deeper and the picture grows darker still. Survivors’ trust in the organisation drops measurably:

• Organisational trust: down 10 percentage points
• Belief in career advancement: down 12 percentage points
• Confidence in the company’s future: down 17 percentage points

These are not sentiment data points — they come from Careerminds and INTOO studies in 2024–2025, tracking large organisations over time. These declines mean that the people who stayed and are working believe the organisation cannot look after them, cannot advance their careers, and cannot manage its own future. This cuts the regenerative capacity of a company at the very moment it needs to prove it can still function.

First wave, second wave — and the “stealth layoff”

There is an even darker dimension. According to 2025 HR data analyses, nearly a third of tech companies — around 32 percent — conducted two or more rounds of layoffs between 2023 and 2025. This means that organisations which already lived through the trust collapse went on to repeat the same trauma a second, third, even fourth time.

Hungary has seen the rise of the “stealth layoff” as well: small severance payments and “voluntary departure” paperwork used to sidestep collective redundancy regulations. The result: employees do not recover from a single blow and rebuild — they suffer a slow, erosion-like loss of trust that grinds on for months, with no clear end in sight.

Where performance begins to buckle

Organisational psychologists call this “cognitive overload.” Put simply: people who are afraid cannot do good work. According to the Kahoot study:

• Job satisfaction drops by 41 percent after a layoff
• Work performance falls by 20 percent among the average survivor

This is not a side effect — it is the primary loss. In a 500-person organisation where 400 remain, if 20 percent of them see their performance decline, the company effectively loses the output of 80 people — even though it formally dismissed only 100.

The Hungarian case: ZF Eger’s two-stage layoff

At the ZF Eger auto parts factory, a two-stage layoff unfolded in 2023–2024: first 60 people, then 50. Only a few weeks separated the two waves. According to HR Portál, the plan for the second wave was ready just ten days after the first — but survivors knew nothing of it. After the initial round, employees were left in a no-man’s-land of uncertainty: they did not know who would stay and what would come next. Kahoot’s data suggests that in this state, survivor performance can drop by as much as 22 percent.

Making matters worse, the process was not called a “layoff” but a “restructuring” or “efficiency improvement.” This did not calm fears — it deepened them. Survivors slid into growing distrust and received no structured transition support. They could see only one thing clearly: fewer people, more work.

Survivor shame: when those who remain turn against themselves

The deepest problem is more hidden still. After a layoff, survivors often tell themselves they are “the lucky ones.” But beneath that relief lies a current of shame and guilt — what the literature calls “survivor shame.” The thought “I stayed, but my friend did not” sets off an emotional dynamic that can, on its own, make a team withdrawn and hostile.

According to the 2025 Researchscape study, 47 percent of survivors actively sought to understand why they were kept — and discussed it with departed colleagues, unintentionally reinforcing their sense of rejection. Among those who left, depression and difficulty restarting deepened further as a result.

Re-onboarding as a strategic imperative

None of this means that rebuilding after a layoff is impossible. Several major companies — including Electrolux and Nokia — have learned that a structured “survivor re-onboarding programme” is just as important as supporting those who leave. This is not a two-hour briefing or an e-learning module — it is a systematic 60-to-90-day programme that includes:

• Clear new role definitions and documented responsibilities
• Leadership check-ins on new tasks and available support
• Team cohesion sessions that do not sidestep the psychology of layoffs but address it directly
• A performance measurement system focused on recovery, not punishment
• Career pathway mapping that shows: your career is not over — a new chapter is beginning

In its Bridge programme, Nokia supported not only those who were dismissed but also those who stayed — with a dedicated advisory team that worked with every team leader on processing the survivor crisis. The result: survivor productivity not only recovered within eighteen months but exceeded previous levels.

Hungarian organisations and the absence of structured transition

In Hungary, most organisations do what the law requires after a layoff: pay severance, sign the dismissal paperwork, and move on. But the survivors — who make up 70 to 80 percent of the organisation — receive no structured transition support. No new role definition. No leadership development. No team cohesion work. No career conversations. Just silence, and the expectation that things will somehow sort themselves out.

This is especially painful in Hungary, where loyalty remains a deeply held organisational value. But a layoff is precisely what destroys that value — because employees start thinking: “The company did not stand by me. Why should I stand by it?” The 20 percent performance drop that Kahoot measures translates, in the Hungarian context, directly into organisational loyalty erosion.

Closing

The true cost of a layoff is not found in severance — it is an invisible loss that manifests in survivor performance, organisational trust, and long-term career expectations. In a 500-person organisation that lays off 100 and retains 400, the real question is not how much the departures cost. The real question is: how do we bring those 400 back to their original performance? Or better yet: how do we preserve the organisation’s strength?

Scandinavian companies have an answer. Most Hungarian organisations have not yet asked the question.

Sources

• Kahoot! & Researchscape — 2025 Workplace Impact Survey (n=1,064)
• Careerminds — Layoff Survivor Performance Impact Report, 2024–2025
• INTOO / Randstad — The Cost of Poor Transition Management
• HR Daily Advisor — Understanding Layoff Survivor Syndrome
• SHRM — The Hidden Costs of Employee Layoffs
• Keystone Partners — Survivor Productivity & Engagement Study
• org — What Happens to Employees Left Behind After Layoffs
• HR Portál — ZF Eger: leépítési hullámok az autóiparban

About the author: Orsolya Márton is Business Development Manager, Executive HR Consultant and Career Counsellor at HR Executives. She specialises in leadership advisory during organisational transitions, outplacement programme design, and compassionate workforce restructuring.

Contact: orsolya.marton@hrexecutives.hu