If You Know Ahead of Time That Someone Is Going to Be in Trouble...

It is not professional to tell her anything unless you are authorized.

You could be terminated if she were to say something about you telling her and you did not have permission to do it.

If you want to be the O. to tell her or give her a heads up, ask if you could be included..

And FYI, the people that have discussed this with you.. They are very unprofessional.. They had better hope no O. finds out they are talking about this.

Stay out of drama at work, when at all possible.

I work in HR so I know before hand. Yes it is hard but it is part of my job and generally, I'm the O. giving them the bad news. =( It stinks to high heaven when its a layoff, merger or consolidation of jobs.

Unless you want to join her in the unemployment line, you need to keep quiet. "Loose lips sink ships".

I think you could say something like this: "Jane, I've heard some whispers that the company may be looking to downsize. Of course, nobody knows what that means, exactly, but I've been thinking maybe I should get my resume polished up, and Bob and I are going to hold off on any major financial decisions until the New Year, just in case." That ought to give her enough of a heads-up, if she's smart. Of course, you can't tell her exactly what's going on, because that might put YOUR job in danger if she freaks out, but you could give her a hint, in a generic sense. I think that would be a kind thing to do for a co-worker of 20 years.

Say nothing. Nothing good can come of you telling her. And what if it never comes to fruition? What if the reliable sources are wrong or the powers that be change their mind? Nope. Stay quiet.

You will regret saying something, I promise you that. Totally sucks, I know.

Stay out of it.
Telling her won't be a kindness.
This sort of news must only come from her boss.

There have been some serious breaches of confidentiality along the line here. Don't add to it. It would reflect badly upon you if it was revealed that you had breached confidentiality.

I would keep my mouth shut.

I can't imagine any good coming from you telling her. You don't know how she'll react. She could go running to the heads up and say "So-and-so (YOU) just told me I'm being fired! Is that true?" You've just put yourself in a bad position, your supervisors (or whomever) in a bad position (having to deny or confirm the info prematurely) without changing the imminent outcome (her being let go). Say nothing. It's simply not your place.

As tempting as it is, you have to keep quiet. First of all, in business things change all the time and the decision to let her go may be changed. Secondly, this type of news is not something she can hear and then keep quiet about. She is going to tell people you told her and then you may be the O. to lose your job. Third, it is better to be there as a support person for her afterward than to be the O. to tell her. Good luck!

Keep my mouth shut and let the people in the know tell her. It's still gossip, no matter how reliable the sources are and there's no need to worry her unless it's a definite thing. Aside from that, people have a tendency to shoot the messenger. Why would you want to put yourself in that position?

:( That stinks big time. Especially in this economy.

I would not say anything. It's not your place and will only come to hurt you in the long run. I say do whatever you can to help her look for something new and be supportive of her, but do not tell information that is not yours to tell.

My advice would be to keep your mouth shut. You might be the O. who loses their job for gossip. It is said that loose lips sink ships. If you value your job, keep your lips shut.

It is obvious you are not her boss, nor are you on the decision making team, so you do not know for sure it has nothing to do with job performance. You are simply passing on gossip.

ETA: I am in the position of knowing that someone in my company is going to lose his job today. I've kept my mouth shut. Why? Because it's NOT MY PLACE to tell him. I'm not his manager. I'm not his boss. I was told in confidence.
______________________

She probably does know what's coming. If she's paying attention and listening, she will know what is happening. She might not think it will be HER job that is lost.

What would **I** do? I would ask her if she's been listening to the rumor mills and that I have heard they are consolidating jobs, etc. What does she think will happen? Is she prepared? Does she think anyone will lose their job under new management?

And if YOU were smart - you would update YOUR resume and be prepared too.

It could also be a test for you and your ethics...people giving you information...so they can find out who you talk to and what you do with the information given to you....it's a dog-eat-dog world out there...how you feed the gossip mill....

Absolutely keep it to yourself. It isn't your place to tell her. While your information is probably reliable, things can change and you cannot know with 100% certainty what is going to happen. You should not have this information to begin with, unless you are her supervisor or are in HR.

There could be serious repercussions if you tell her. It also won't make you look very good to the bosses and they will probably lose respect for you and question whether they can trust you in the future. If I was your boss, and you passed this information along, I would be seriously pissed at you.

wow, that's an awful position to be in.
the most you could do would be very vague generalizations, such as 'downsizing is so common any more, isn't it? EVERY major company is doing it. profits over people, ya know. i'm making it a point to keep my resume polished and pretty.'
:( khairete
S.

Best to keep it to yourself. They maybe setting you up for the fall. As others have said, someone might be planting a "bug" to see where it goes as to whom they should remove.

I once congratulated a person on a promotion before they got it and it did cost me. I learned a valuable lesson from it. Keep my mouth shut at all costs. You don't want to be the O. bringing the bad news as you will be blamed or hated by the person being removed.

Remember life is not fair no matter how long you have worked or known someone. We are all expendable at our jobs unless you own the company as long as it is not on the stock market.

Just make sure you are doing your best at the job and brush up on your resume just in case.

the other S.

PS You say it has Zero to do with the job, you really can't say since you are not the O. making the decision.

I wouldn't say a thing. It's not your position to tell her, and it might all be rumor! I'd let HR do their thing. You don't want to get into trouble for letting information out that wasn't yours to tell.

Gossip is dangerous.

I'd take her out to lunch and start some gossip. Sort of like "Did you hear we're going to lose our jobs?". Then move on to I heard that XXxx is on the short list and I might be too. If she says "NO! I heard we're all going to be fine" then you need to sort of say "Well I heard you and I are both on the top of the list for being let go".

By saying your job is at risk too, even if it's not, won't make her feel like it's personal. By starting this "gossip" it's not XX told me you are getting fired when they start shifting stuff around, you better get prepared. It's giving her a heads up that lots of jobs are at risk.

My hubby was working at a local electric co-op as a computer guy for a few years. He made a good living. They had a credit union and we had little debt.

We both bought program vehicles. They were nice cars and our car payments were just over $700 per month. Our car insurance on these vehicles was just over $1100 every 6 months. We were still able to pay our bills and have money left over for our needs. We didn't have any kids living with us, my daughter lived full time with her dad. Raising my grand kids didn't happen until years later.

Anyway. We had just bought hubbies car and thought his job was pretty secure. They laid him off the week before Christmas....

They sent him a letter in January from the credit union that we either needed to pay off both cars by the end of the month or forfeit them to be sold at auction. We would of course be liable for any money remaining on the note if they didn't sell for what we owed on them.

They came and got them. They sued us for the remaining couple of thousand dollars we owed them when it was all said and done but hubby health had started to deteriorate and he was unable to work full time. They garnished his wages at 15% for a long time to get their money.

Had we known they were thinking of outsourcing their IT support we might not have bought such expensive vehicles, mine was not as expensive as his anyway.... It would have been nice to know it "might" happen so we could start planning to minimize our spending. Not that we spent lots of money each month but we might have been able to put hubby's car up for sale and paid it off. My car would have been low enough payments that would could have probably kept it.

As it was we had no car, our house, credit cards, everything was gone. He had been laid off at his long time job a year or so before this and we had just started getting on our financial feet again. We never recouped our financial stability.

We lost everything.

So having any sort of idea he might lose his job would have been a life changing bit of information. Even if it had just been "gossip between friends" it would have put that little bit of doubt in our mind/on the back burner. So it some major purchase was possible we might have chosen to wait until the job cuts were done.

By saying it's gossip you're not putting anyone on the defensive you are putting it as something hidden and secret, that makes her interested. That it's special information. It's not so "Hey, you're getting fired".

By including yourself in the possible lay offs she doesn't feel alone and things you are a co-worker who is in the same boat, soon to be out of a job.

By saying you've heard this through the grapevine she feels special because you chose to share it with her. It's like a rallying of the work force, all being in the same position to lose their jobs. It helps her accept what you're saying and makes her feel like she's not alone.

Definitely DO NOT tell her. It's not your place. It would be incredibly unprofessional and unethical. There's also the possibility that what you've been hearing isn't actually accurate. She really could be losing her job due to job performance. Or maybe she isn't losing her job at all. There could be other issues at play that you're unaware of.

This person doesn't need a heads up, and in fact telling this person could cause problems both for her and the company that you can't foresee. For instance, if you tell her and then she quits or she ends up doing something really regrettable that gets her fired sooner, that could affect her unemployment benefits negatively. The company HAS TO be able to go through this process without interference and so does your coworker.

Basically, it's none of your business and has nothing to do with you. I don't intend that to sound harsh, but it's a fact. I had to deal with this EXACT situation several months ago. It was uncomfortable and felt all kinds of weird, and in my case I knew for a fact that the person was going to be fired. I didn't even hint that I knew he would be fired. I had to let my boss handle it from start to finish to make sure that it was done ethically and legally so that when this person tried to come after the agency later, she would be covered.

I agree with people saying you should start talking in generalities about people losing their jobs. You say "probably" so you're not even 100% sure but no harm saying you've been hearing there are going to be layoffs and you're going to be prepared, has she thought about it?

loose lips sink ships. That's our family motto.