Spot the redundancy.

Easy? Trawl through ten paragraphs of corporate jargon and we’ll talk again.

Welcome to the world of redundancy communication.

I’ve been through more restructures than I care to count.
While they’re part of business and never pleasant, most of the time, people see them coming.

Of course, they’re highly sensitive and tightly held in the early stages.
There are legal, regulatory, and procedural constraints.
No question, there’s a time and place for confidentiality.

And yet, every company seems to pull out the same tired playbook when the time comes to inform the workforce:

“Strategic realignment.”
“Unlocking synergies.”
“Optimising operational models.”

As if people are actually fooled by it.

You hire smart, capable adults.
Then, when things get tough, you talk to them like children.

Why?
Because the playbook says:

“We need our people to stay focused.”
“We want to keep morale up.”
“We still need to hit our targets.”

People can handle bad news.
What they won’t tolerate is being patronised.

How you communicate in this critical phase shapes your culture long after the exit emails are sent.

Does your message respect employees’ intelligence or insult it?

Don’t think you can rebuild trust with a follow-up Q&A.
You build it with honesty, clarity, and basic respect, long before the dark clouds appear on the horizon.

Loyalty is earned, not assumed.

The people who leave will remember.
The ones who stay will remember even more.