Informing clients, vendors, and other third-party relationships of a layoff
There's always a lot of debate over the proper etiquette that both employers and employees should use during a layoff, so I'm curious about your thoughts (and experiences) when it comes to a specific issue: letting people outside the company, with whom you've worked in a professional capacity, know that you've been laid off.
This issue created some major headaches for me last year after I was let go from a marketing agency. Prior to this, my experience with layoffs was a) part of large-scale and widely publicized cuts at a bigger company that were handled so poorly that the CEO apologized for how they were done and b) the collapse of a flailing startup that never really generated much in the way of attention or relationships. I had never had the experience of a "happy middle" type of layoff where the company was fairly well-known with established relationships but any layoffs are small scale.
At the agency, I was cut alongside one other person and the decision was shared within the company. I was given a week to wrap things up (certainly more courteous than the immediate account boot that people sometimes experience). I finished out my work, left some advice and standard operating procedures, and did my final meeting with an administrator. The agency lead even said she might be able to set me up with freelance work in the future.
As part of getting my affairs in order, I had sent some quick, neutral messages to the clients I'd worked with to let them know I'd been laid off and would no longer be working with them, and let them know who they should direct their inquiries to. I got several courteous replies thanking me for the update and wishing me luck. One client called to say my work was the only reason they'd renewed their contract, and ask if I would be interested in continuing that work on a contract basis. I demurred, saying the agency had better resources to get that work done.
While taking a walk in the afternoon of my final day, I got a call from the company's HR rep, who was furious that I'd told the clients I'd been laid off. She described this as "highly unprofessional," saying the agency lead had asked me not to contact clients (wanting to reach out herself) after seeing one of the messages. The trouble was that I'd sent the messages one after the other, so by the time she made this request the genie was out of the bottle. The HR rep claimed one client was threatening to end their relationship (presumably the one that had contacted me) and warned that the company may no longer pay out my severance.
Naturally, I felt a bit hollowed out at the prospect of losing this chunk of change, though by the end of the walk I was equally furious with my former employer. I resolved that if they went after my severance I would follow up with the clients with a not so neutral message about how the agency had responded to what I considered a polite communication to maintain a continuity of services.
Thankfully this never happened; I was able to use time-stamped emails to indicate that I hadn't willfully disobeyed the agency lead, and also pointed out how nothing in the separation of employment paperwork had prohibited contact with clients.
Still, the whole thing has kind of rankled me for awhile. I can understand my former employer's frustrations to some extent, but also feel like a company shouldn't bar employees from contacting clients about a layoff (a practice intended no doubt to cloak layoffs in nebulous language like "he no longer workers here" to try to hide the negative implications of cutting staff). After all, I maintained contact with several of the clients after the fact for networking purposes, and if I hadn't told them during the final week they would have found out afterward.
What are your thoughts on this issue?
TL;DR: Former employer got upset that I told the clients I worked with that I was being laid off. What are the expectations for contact with clients/third party professional relationships when a company lets you go?