You make some good points. Thanks for the comment. I could have stood up in a meeting and made a deal of the 10% not being fair; shown my opposition as you say … after the big boss flew in to make sure we clearly understood, the 10% was mandatory across the entire company. So then what? The employees would have taken my speech that to heart and started behaving as if we were going after each of them, causing untold madness as they scrambled to get out of the “unfairness”.

Corporate would have tagged my site (me) as uncooperative management and punished all of us and our people. I suspect by showing us who was boss by making us lay off more than the required 10%. (It is what I would do if I were them.) So what do I get for being this beacon of truth… miserable people, possibly moved to a new position without power, and my entire team punished as my boss makes sure they pay for my indiscretion. In this one woman’s opinion, based on working with corporate directives, it was not a good battle to directly engage. I picked my public battles carefully. For me, I did the best I could for my team with what I had.

I respect the way you would run your career. Good luck as you face these types of decisions.