Has your company announced layoffs? If you've been through this before, you know how it works: Managers gather their teams together or call individuals into the conference room one by one. Belongings get boxed up under the watchful, somewhat-embarrassed gaze of a supervisor. Handshakes all around, an awkward silence and the hapless workers are out the door.

Or are they? Maybe the hapless workers are the ones watching their former co-workers drive off.

There are certain advantages to being the one with the pink slip. For one thing, the waiting and wondering are over, especially if the company has been struggling. The person being laid off can access state services and unemployment compensation, and he or she may receive a severance package.

The most significant benefit to leaving? A chance to start over. Instead of coming to work every day with an ax hovering over their heads, these workers get to plan for the future.

Of course, that's not how it feels when the ax actually has fallen. It's hard to see either side of the pink slip as a walk in the park.

While there are more people left behind in a layoff than have been let go, there aren't very many books or columns written for them. Here are a few tips to help balance the scale.

This week's ideas are geared to managers; next week's column offers ideas for workers in general.

1. Rearrange the furniture. This tip doesn't work as well in a factory or retail operation, but it's very doable in an office. The tendency to leave a desk as a shrine to the departed worker strikes me as macabre. When it's multiplied by dozens or hundreds of desks, it's flat-out depressing. The daily walk past empty workstations is always a downer.

I remember one huge corporation that stacked the empty desks near the front of what had been a brightly lit, energetic cubicle farm. Now, with the lights dimmed to save money and hundreds of gray desks piled up, it felt like a scene from an Armageddon movie.

AMY LINDGREN

WORKING STRATEGIES

A better solution would be to block off the unused areas with dividers decorated with posters or employee art. If necessary, disable the lights you don't need, but keep the work areas and walkways well-lit and cheerful.

2. Keep the vending machines stocked. If your vendors need to consolidate their offerings into fewer machines, negotiate that, but don't let a bunch of half-empty machines with old food greet your workers on break.

3. Bring back some perks. One advantage of a smaller staff is that it costs less to provide extras, such as free coffee or Friday pizzas.

4. Rearrange the workload. Don't expect one employee to do what was the work of two. Instead, solve that problem with temporary workers, new equipment or new processes. If you're a manager, you need to manage. If your superiors expect results that simply can't be produced, it's best to deliver that message early in the game, before you wear out your remaining workers.

5. Rebuild your team. If you're trying to do more with less, you need everyone on board, and that means communication and teamwork. Frequent staff meetings or new work teams for specific projects will help. Another approach might be occasional outings or on-site workshops at which workers from different areas can interact with one another.

6. Touch base with each worker. Don't know whether someone's job is secure? It's probably better to say so than to pretend there's no elephant in the living room. If you really need someone to stay, that person would appreciate knowing that you value him or her. Be as honest as you can, and you will build surprising loyalty, even under these difficult circumstances.

- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecaree rservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.