The Economy in Silicon Valley, a 1590 KLIV special report

George Sampson, Weekday Morning Anchor
AM1590 KLIV, Silicon Valley's only all-news radio station
January 7, 2009

Click here to listen to Valerie’s thoughts on outplacement in Silicon Valley, as broadcasted on AM1590 KLIV. The Economy & Silicon Valley series features interviews with local business people, focusing on Silicon Valley’s economy.

Valerie Frederickson has a front row seat for the Valley’s economy. She’s CEO of Valerie Frederickson & Company, a Menlo Park firm that does human resource consulting. They place people into HR jobs, provide consulting services, and they also provide another service.

“Something that’s very popular, unfortunately, these days, and that’s reductions in forces.”

2008 was a crazy year. For the first 9 months, business was up 40%.

“And then in October, it’s kind of a delayed reaction compared to some industries, all hell broke loose. Our executive search business steeply declined, while our outplacement business took off exponentially.”

And these days, Frederickson finds herself going to local companies to assist in layoffs, leading to some interesting observations about the corporate culture when jobs are cut. While the focus is usually on the people losing jobs, Frederickson says there are special problems for the people who don’t get the ax.

“What I’m seeing now is that more of the survivors are in tears than the victims, the people who are actually getting laid off. For the survivors, they feel an overwhelming sense of relief and then they feel tremendously guilty that they have that relief.”

And while most people don’t worry about the feelings of the CEO during the layoff, Frederickson does.

“The CEO’s, some of them are almost like broken men, they’re just so demoralized that they’re not able to turn around sales, and they’re having to do layoff after layoff. It’s really tough on them.”

And based on her dealings with many of the Valley’s large companies, Frederickson the HR consultant believes it will be a long cold winter and a not so springy spring.

“Companies are going to continue to do reductions-in-force, at least through the first 5 to 6 months of the year. And I know that partially because we’re already scheduled and under contract to do many of them. It’s what our clients have been telling us.”

That’s Valerie Frederickson of Menlo Park’s Valerie Frederickson & Company, a Human Resources consulting firm.

1590 KLIV is Silicon Valley’s only all-news radio station. 1590 KLIV is an affiliate of CNN Radio, which provides up-to-the-minute national and international news. Overnights and weekends they air CNN Headline news with frequent local news and traffic updates.