If you’re a manager, laying someone off is probably the hardest thing you’re ever going to have to do. If you’re an employee, being laid off can be devastating.

Layoffs are particularly tough during difficult economic times, when there are so many of them going on. But as bad as all that is, there is actually something that is far, far worse than your average layoff—it’s a layoff that’s screwed up. Really screwed up.

I’ve seen this done on a large scale, like when RadioShack used e-mail to let 400 workers know they were losing their jobs. And I’ve seen it done on a smaller scale, as when a company accidentally let leak the internal documents it was using to prep managers on how to handle a yet-to-be-announced layoff.

 But I can’t recall a situation where a one-on-one layoff was so badly mishandled that it became national news—until now, that is.

Here’s what I’m talking about, courtesy of a story in the Wisconsin State Journal: “A Dean Health System manager removed a nurse from a minor surgical procedure last week—in violation of medical protocol—in order to lay her off, a spokesman for the company confirmed Monday.

The abrupt removal, which spokesman Paul Pitas said posed no danger to the patient, came after the Madison-based health care provider announced Wednesday that it planned to ‘immediately’ lay off 90 employees.”

Well, you have to give Dean Health credit for brutal honesty; when it says it is going to make layoffs “immediately,” it follows through, no matter what the circumstances, even if it means possibly putting a patient at risk.

Dean Health claims otherwise, of course, according to the newspaper: “Pitas, director of corporate communications, labeled the action ‘clearly … an error in judgment on the part of the manager conducting the layoff.’ He declined to name the manager but described her as ‘an otherwise good employee with more than 30 years of nursing experience who made a regrettable decision.’ ”

This is the part I don’t quite understand. Wouldn’t you expect an employee with more than three decades of nursing experience to be sensitive to the needs of both patients and the medical staff that takes care of them? This kind of grossly insensitive layoff would be something you would expect from a new or inexperienced manager, not someone with a great deal of experience.

Dean Health is in full scramble mode right now trying to manage this story. Who wants to be a health care company known for terminating workers while they’re in the middle of surgery? Even though Dean Health claims that all turned out well for the patient, it makes you wonder: If they can’t even manage a layoff properly, how can they be trusted to manage sensitive health care procedures?

Some will undoubtedly say that you can’t compare the two and that it’s unfair to do so, but if I’m a client of Dean Health, I might be having some second thoughts about trusting my care to them.

Spokesman Pitas told the newspaper that Dean would continue to pursue the circumstances surrounding the botched layoff, but he wouldn’t say what the possible outcomes might be. “Out of respect for the [manager], we cannot discuss specifics,” he said. “However, we can tell you we are looking into this, and appropriate action will be taken.”

He added that the manager involved in the layoff “is very upset and is extremely remorseful over this,” adding that the layoffs created “extraordinary circumstances.”

Yes, that’s true, but as I’ve written before, you pay managers to step up in these situations, not make it worse.

And in my book, the true measure of a company is how they handle people during difficult times. Organizations love to pound their chests and tout their winning cultures when times are good, but you really should judge them on how they operate when times are bad.

That’s the true test of a company. And by that measure, Dean Health flunks in just about every way possible. It’s true that layoffs create “extraordinary circumstances,” but great organizations know all too well that if you always prepare for the worst situation possible—the “extraordinary circumstances”—you’ll be able to handle whatever comes your way, and that managing in normal times is a piece of cake.

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