After dealing with multiple congregations and multiple call committees, I concluded sometime ago that personnel matters provided some of the worst examples of church mismanagement and ineptitude. Apparently that isn’t limited to local congregations. The layoffs at the ELCA headquarters also seem to have been handled with a similar clumsiness and insensitivity.A mass firing, of course, simply isn’t going to be a pleasant experience. Recognizing that, one might have expected some effort to mitigate the suffering but there is no evidence that occurred here. For some time prior to distribution of the pink slips, there were the usual water cooler stories and rumors. Xanax and sleepless nights were in ample supply.
The main problem, once again, has been lack of transparency. Since no statement has gone out about the layoffs, speculation and paranoia are inevitable. A local synod lay leader here has gotten multiple complaints about discrimination and inequity in the firings, alleging that minority support staff took the brunt of the cuts. I do know that there were veteran white males dismissed. I don’t know, however, what the proportions of the cuts were except that they were across the board. (20% per unit was one figure I heard but I also know of one unit that lost more than a third of its staff members—7 out of 20.)
The staff reduction does not become official until the church council signs off on it and it is meeting this weekend. Still, the outcome is pretty clear and it seems that some kind of communication could have been made at least to the staff, giving an overall picture of what was occurring. Instead, this seems to be another case where, in terms of pastoral care, the church talks a good game but when dealing with its own it fumbles the ball.
