Warning, I'm about to offer my opinion, if you don't want to hear my opinion stop reading now.  If you're offended by hearing others opinions, you really may want to stop reading now, especially if those opinions are sharp, pointed and rather one sided.  I'm serious, stop reading if you're easy to anger when someone points out things that may open wounds just a little. OK, you can't say that you haven't been warned. My response to this article is YES, they should, or at least they should allow employees the opportunity to help out where they can. For each of my last three jobs, I've left due to financial difficulties at the companies.  The first was because they were having trouble making payroll and I left voluntarily because another position became available, the second they were again having trouble making payroll and I left voluntarily after they hadn't paid me in 6 weeks, the third, the simply laid me off out of the blue. With the first company, the gathered all of us together in the conference room and told us that they were having difficulty and asked if we could accept some temporary pay cuts.  This was while I was still in college, I knew that I couldn't accept a very large pay cut but I wanted to help the company succeed so of course I would accept a temporary pay cut. I ended up leaving before the pay cut was over, but at least they were trying to stay a float.  I can't fault them for trying.  I look back at that company and while it was a rocky time, at least I felt as though they were looking out for the majority of the employees. The second company was a little different and I felt a bit taken advantage of, but it was also a bit of my own fault too.  Due my previous company having difficulty I asked direct questions during my interviews specifically about the current business plan and how business was going.  I was assured that things were going well enough.  It wasn't until about 8 months in to my employment that I was pulled into the conference room and told the my paycheck that I had been given that morning if cashed would in fact bounce.  It kind of upset me because my car had been in the shop and I had literally received my paycheck, gone to class (I was still in college), put my check in the bank, gone to pick up my car (which I paid for with a check) and driven back to work. From there on out it was a roller coaster ride of missed paydays and such for the next 10 months or so.  I blame myself because I stuck with it for so long, I should have removed myself from the situation much sooner than I did, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons about myself in the process, but honestly the stress that I was under probably wasn't worth it. Finally, the third position, I was almost completely blind sided.  I was lead to believe that everything was going well.  It wasn't until I was in the conference room (was it with those stupid conference rooms anyway?) that I was told of the difficulty that the company was currently under and of the steps that had been taken and had apparently failed to help keeps things going.  The next step was to lay off much of the work force. That was several weeks ago and I've had a lot of time to think since then and maybe hindsight really is 20/20, but if they had come to me before hand and asked me to help out I would have.  This is a company that I truly believed in and felt that I put my whole heart and soul into for 6 and a half years, to help them improve and become a better company. I believe that if companies do disclose that there are financial difficulties and ask the employees to help out, that if the employees do truly care about the company succeeding that they will help out.  If this company had asked me to take a temporary pay cut, I would have agreed to have done so.  If they had asked me to have take Mandatory Unpaid Time off, I would have also done that.  If they needed to have the Janitorial staff come in only once a week/month and needed me to vacuum my area and take out my own trash, no problem.  If they had cut out the bi-weekly grocery shopping and asked everyone to bring in their own snacks, I could have done that (I didn't eat much from the fridge there anyway). My point is be open and honest with your employees when it comes to financial matters like this and I promise you that they will surprise you.  Believe it or not, they actually care and want to see the company succeed just as much as those in management and/or the owners do.  In some cases it's those employees that are essentially putting food on your tables, paying for your large homes and fancy cars and helping to keep your business' doors open. Sure you're going to get those that bail out and they are going to bail out for all different reasons, but your company is only going to become stronger as it fights through the tough times, but by giving others reasons to go out and fight against your company because you've made them upset by keeping everything covered up until the very last moment is not a good idea in my book. If your company has talented people, do everything in your power to keep them around, because what are you saying about them otherwise "We think that you're extremely talented.  You are doing a fabulous job for us.  We can no longer afford to keep you around, so we think that you'd do a much better job for our competition".  Yeah, that's going to help your already financially strapped company.