It's interesting that "over Zoom call" is presented as a negative here. Like it's better to haul everyone into the office and do it?
Normally sites like this complain that work should be remote!
Normally sites like this complain that work should be remote!
It's not 100% clear, though the phrasing of the article ("an unscheduled mandatory Zoom meeting at 8 a.m. CT", one time) does make it sound like a single meeting with 200 people.
The more "human" feeling thing is to have 1-1 zoom calls with each person being fired so you can talk to them about their situation and specifics.
I think they also do that. This is just to give people the initial news as soon as possible, and without ambiguity or speculation as it takes days to percolate through if you did it 1:1.
They did it one by one, and it took roughly a full day to get through everyone. The whole company was on pins and needles- even those who were doing well couldn't think about anything other than wonder whose names and faces they wouldn't be seeing around the office anymore.
As an individual, I empathize with the emotional difficulty of an impersonal mass layoff. However, having seen the flip side, it's a whole lot worse to spend 8 hours wondering when the hammer is going to drop on you. Ultimately, it's better to get it over with quickly, imho.
After you get through about 10 people, the other 190 will know they are getting fired and are now sitting around dreading their one to one.
I think delivering the news en-masse is an absolute must, you can always follow up with one to ones, or leave it as an option for people.
Sure, it's detached, but it's not like I'm expecting my upper management to be attached to me that way.
However, no matter what, someone will always be unhappy about the method. Which is probably why the axe people throw up their hands and just try to get it over with efficiently.
Edit: "Over zoom" -> "Over a mass zoom", since this was apparently poorly worded and distracting. I wasn't proposing the ridiculous move of forcing a remote worker to fly to an office to get fired.
I cannot agree. If you have a regular in-person presence then I agree, but if your typical form of working is remote then it's not inhumane to have that conversation remotely.
You raise their expectations, waste their time, then destroys the possibility of having them enjoy the remainder of the trip.
As impersonal as it is, virtual is what I’ve signed up for so wouldn’t expect anything different were I to get let go.
All I could think, "Am I going to wake-up early and deal with traffic just so they can fire me to my face?"
The way to 'humanely' lay people off is simple: give them a generous severance package. 6 months of pay/benefits should be plenty to find a new job without any disruption. The last time I was laid off as a mass lay-off (my group was laid off because the company decided to quit the product sector we were in), I got 4 months' severance and had a new (higher paying) job within a month, so I wasn't mad at all.
And if I'm the one being fired, I really don't care how it's done, but if I had to choose, I'd prefer the option that wastes as little of my time as possible and doesn't require me to wake up at 8am to hear you fire me.
What people really want to get around saying is "no company should ever do layoffs", and well that's a whole different discussion.
Layoffs are usually not “unexpected” if you can read the tea leaves.
Besides, I go to work everyday to exchange labor for money to support my addiction to food and shelter. I never expect a company to “care about me or my feelings”.
I’ve also ensured that I have had at least 3-6 months of living expenses in the bank for the last 25 years. Yes - this was from the time when I was making $11/hour as a computer operator and I was saving my overtime.
There also has never been a point in my career that I didn’t “have my running shoes on” - an updated resume, a skillset that was inline with the market, a strong network, and an updated career documented.