Good morning, CFOs. A look at how companies handle layoffs; New York officials are teaming up with Wall Street to keep the National Guard out; plus, CFO pay rises.

Employers are changing layoff tactics with an aim of minimizing ugly public scenes, Chip Cutter and Ray A. Smith report.

Varying approaches: When Amazon.com began laying off 14,000 employees last month, some staffers learned of their fate via a text at home telling them to consult their inboxes. An email with the subject line “Update Regarding Your Role at Amazon” awaited them: “Unfortunately, your role is being eliminated.” Employees could join a voluntary meeting with a company leader or human-resources representative to ask questions, it added. At that point, some decided: Why bother?

Southwest Airlines closed corporate offices to most staffers during its corporate layoffs earlier this year; some employees learned of their status at home on video calls in listen-only mode.

Target told U.S. corporate employees to work from home the week in October that it conducted layoffs.

The bottom line: The goal is to communicate the bad news “as quickly as possible across a large swath of the employee population” to help control the message and limit stress on workers, said George Penn, a managing vice president at Gartner who advises companies on how to minimize risks in staff restructurings.

Though there is never a good way to tell employees they are losing their jobs, he said, “At the end of the day, you’re looking for the least-bad option.”

📆 Earnings

• Home Depot
• Klarna Group
• Medtronic

📈 Economic Indicators

The National Association of Home Builders releases its Housing Market Index for November.

New York state officials and Wall Street executives are teaming up to avoid a federal takeover of New York City, hoping to make the case to President Trump that a surge in law enforcement would be bad for business.

Over the past several months, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration has been mapping out a way to protect New York from National Guard deployments and increased immigration enforcement that Trump has ordered for other U.S. cities. The effort comes at a critical moment for New York City, whose newly elected mayor, Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, has drawn Trump’s ire.

New York officials aim to follow the playbook that San Francisco successfully used last month to keep out National Guard troops. Silicon Valley chief executives, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, as well as San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie texted and called Trump to warn him that a deployment would hurt local businesses and have a ripple effect on the national economy.

📰 Other headlines

• Fed Vice Chair Says Economic Trade-Offs Justify Lowering Rates Slowly
• Johnson & Johnson to Buy Halda Therapeutics for $3.05 Billion
• Elizabeth Warren: Larry Summers Shouldn’t Be Trusted to Teach at Harvard After Epstein Emails
• Exclusive: Omnicom Executive to Lead Brand Consulting Firm That Works With Private Equity
• U.S. Investigators Probe Exec Facing Fraud Allegations From BlackRock’s HPS
• Panera Plans to Spend Millions on Better Sandwiches and Nicer Stores
• The ‘JPMorgan Boys’ Behind the U.S. Bailout for Argentina
• The Most Joyless Tech Revolution Ever: AI Is Making Us Rich and Unhappy
• The Office Market’s Budding Recovery Is Leaving Most Cities Behind
• The Weight-Loss Craze Is About to Mint a Trillion-Dollar Company
• How America’s Hottest Chicken Chain Keeps Its Secret Sauce a Secret

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Watts Water Technologies, the North Andover, Mass.-based maker of plumbing, heating and water-quality products, said CFO Ryan Lada is leaving after less than four months on the job to pursue a new opportunity. Diane McClintock, who joined the company in 2010 and has been vice president of financial planning and analysis and investor relations since March 2022, succeeds Lada as finance chief, Watts said. Lada joined Watts as chief financial officer in late July. The company said his departure is for personal reasons and isn't the result of any matters relating to its business, accounting practices or financial statements.

—Colin Kellaher contributed to today’s Ledger.

The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics including corporate tax, accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy.

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