Diplomats – INFJs (Advocates), INFPs (Mediators), ENFJs (Protagonists), and ENFPs (Campaigners) – are the four personality types who share the Intuitive and Feeling personality traits.
You may already recognize the Diplomats on your team. After a layoff, they may be the people organizing the goodbye card, checking in on coworkers who seem shaken, or asking how you’re holding up.
But some of the questions weighing on them may never get said out loud:
Were the people who left treated fairly?
How is everyone doing – really?
Is this still a company I can feel good about?
That last question is particularly important for Diplomat personalities, and it’s the one we’re going to focus on today.
For tips on how to recognize and work effectively with all Diplomat personalities, check out our past Identifying Personalities at Work series.
What a Layoff Looks Like to a Diplomat
For many Diplomats, the people and the purpose are a big part of what makes work matter. According to our personality data, 82% of Diplomats said they often feel a strong need to belong, while only 21% said their career is the most important thing in their lives.
So when coworkers disappear from their daily lives, Diplomats may feel that loss deeply. These aren’t just changes to the org chart to them.
At the same time, Diplomats are paying close attention to how the layoff was handled. Were people treated with care? Were they given support? Did leadership acknowledge what was being lost, or move on as quickly as possible?
A Diplomat may be able to accept a painful decision if they believe people were treated well through it. What can be much harder to accept is a decision that may make sense on paper but feels cold in practice.
And unlike Analysts, Diplomats may not press you with questions about it. They may worry that doing so would seem disloyal, overly critical, or unfair to you. So instead of saying what’s bothering them, they may quietly start wondering what the layoff says about the company they work for.
This is tricky to spot, because you might never hear this question directly, yet it’s still shaping how much trust, energy, and care Diplomats are willing to give their work.
The rest of this article is open to paid subscribers. Below, we’ll look at why Diplomats often keep these doubts to themselves, what disengagement can look like for this Role, and what helps them feel good about investing in the company again.
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