Sizing Down

In January 1992, human resources manager Louise Moser Illes was notified, along with nine hundred co-workers, that the semiconductor plant where she worked would be closed by the end of the year.

As a slice of history, docudrama and how-to manual, Sizing Down is top-notch. Illes was human resources manager at the Signetics semiconductor plant in Orem, Utah, when, in January 1992, she was notified that the plant would close at the end of the year. It became her task to assist with orchestrating the phase-out of 900 jobs, including her own.... Throughout the inevitable juggling of interests, judgments had to be made, some good, some bad, says the author. This relentlessly objective history records them all, along with afterthoughts on how the situation might have been handled better.

The strength of Illes's book is the... summary at the end of each chapter. She gives suggestions on how managers involved in future plant closings can learn from the Signetics experience.

An instructive look at what problems to anticipate and how to minimize the traumatic effects of job loss.

Louise Moser Illes is Assistant Director of the Faculty Center at Brigham Young University.