4 ms·

This article is reaching. While layoffs do suck, and the CEO could have more eloquently empathized with the terminated employees, there is no easy way to do thi

This article is reaching. While layoffs do suck, and the CEO could have more eloquently empathized with the terminated employees, there is no easy way to do this. With remote work, you live by the sword and die by the sword. They’ll hire you over video chat and fire you over video chat. Perhaps the author could read up on how his own employer does layoffs[0]. On a related note, Better.com had a very slick interface and was responsive in the beginning but suffered from generally incompetent loan advisors. [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/26/business/media/vice-media-layoffs.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/26/business/media/vice-media...

lelandfe 5y ago
You don’t think laying off nearly 1000 people en masse with a video is cruel and unusual? I do. This is a terrible look for the company in my opinion and I’m glad this article exposed it.
- hungryforcodes 5y ago
  Definitely not cruel if handled correctly. Provide compensation and support post work for finding a new job. It can be handled super humanely. So you are the CEO and can't visit anyone physically for obvious reasons. How do you propose you do it?
- mbrumlow 5y ago
  I would rather be told in the privacy of my house then in a office and have to walk by all the other folks in the other meeting.
  - ergocoder 5y ago
    If someone forces me into the office, I will cough at them. What the hell. Just do video call.
- LinuxBender 5y ago
  For what its worth, I've seen something even more tacky than this. A company rented a ballroom of a hotel and had 2 meetings. 9am: Lay off several hundred people. 10am: Celebration for those still employed. Some people designated for 9am showed up late. It was very awkward.
  - wcfields 5y ago
    I’ve been there on the IT side. Company had two meetings simultaneously on either side of the building and I was in the server room disabling GSuite accounts and remotely locking laptops. Absolutely brutal 40% headcount slash after we lost a major client. And, someone went to the “stay” meeting that was escorted to the correct meeting by a manager too.
  - tibbydudeza 5y ago
    Reminds me of The Joker breaking a cuestick in half and throwing it to the two surviving henchman and saying "Good News - there is a new position opening up in my organization".
brezelnbitte 5y ago
There’s a much better way to do this and while it’s time-consuming it’s the right thing to do. You have their immediate manager reach out individually with an HR Business Partner on the call to help manage the conversation and answer immediate questions about severance, immigration etc. May need to some group calls where whole teams are let go but as personal as possible is the goal. I’ve seen it done this way where there more than 1000 so it’s doable with large RIFs. By doing it this way you also maintain a chance they’ll come back when you’re doing better and that you won’t risk expensive wrongful termination claims.
addingnumbers 5y ago
> Perhaps the author could read up on how his own employer does layoffs They did it the normal way, individual private notification. It would be remiss not to mention it afterward at the next all-hands meeting. > They’ll hire you over video chat and fire you over video chat. They didn't hire anyone on a one-way broadcast-only video conference with 900 attendees.
- ergocoder 5y ago
  > They did it the normal way, individual private notification. Over a messaging app? How is that normal or better? > They didn't hire anyone on a one-way broadcast-only video conference with 900 attendees. CEO doesn't hire anyone individually either. So, is it better to push this layoff responsibility to the hiring manager? I have no idea why hiring and firing need to be symmetrical. When I was hired, I was congrat'ed by multiple people through personal email. Should we keep that symmetry as well? Or should we be arbitrarily selective?
  - addingnumbers 5y ago
    > Over a messaging app? Who said a messaging app? The Vice story says Google Meet video chat. > How is that normal or better? Most people don't want to be entirely impassive spectators while someone who can't see or hear them upends their career plans with uncontested fluffy business jargon. > So, is it better to push this layoff responsibility to the hiring manager? Yes, I've been laid off once and a colleague twice, and that's how it's gone each time. The whole reason there are articles written about this incident is that it's so sensationally exceptional.
animalgonzales 5y ago
there's a special place in hell for billionaires laying people off with one week severance before Christmas.
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  This is the type of stuff that breaks people. Awful company, I hope the bad press eradicates them, and the ceo loses everything.
- erulabs 5y ago
  I'm not disagreeing at all, and I don't know the details in this case, but it's entirely possible to be a billionaire on paper and be _wildly_ incapable of paying salaries to 900 people. 900 x ~150,000 = 135,000,000. If the company was losing 100M a year during the next valuation moment, it's very possible this CEO would no longer be even close to being a billionaire. Cash in hand and valuation are very different things. Again, not excusing any of this, the video was extremely cringe and I can't believe he went with "for those of you in the US, we'll be doing the legal minimum, for everyone else, sorry!", but as someone who is "worth" almost a million dollars, and who cannot afford to hire even a single person, it's not always so simple. All that said, 900 * (150000 / 12) == 11250000, so I have a hard time imagining it wouldn't have been worth 1M for a fairly well known tech company with loads of funding to avoid this horrific press and karma.

lelandfe 5y ago

You don’t think laying off nearly 1000 people en masse with a video is cruel and unusual? I do. This is a terrible look for the company in my opinion and I’m glad this article exposed it.

hungryforcodes 5y ago
Definitely not cruel if handled correctly. Provide compensation and support post work for finding a new job. It can be handled super humanely. So you are the CEO and can't visit anyone physically for obvious reasons. How do you propose you do it?
mbrumlow 5y ago
I would rather be told in the privacy of my house then in a office and have to walk by all the other folks in the other meeting.
- ergocoder 5y ago
  If someone forces me into the office, I will cough at them. What the hell. Just do video call.
LinuxBender 5y ago
For what its worth, I've seen something even more tacky than this. A company rented a ballroom of a hotel and had 2 meetings. 9am: Lay off several hundred people. 10am: Celebration for those still employed. Some people designated for 9am showed up late. It was very awkward.
- wcfields 5y ago
  I’ve been there on the IT side. Company had two meetings simultaneously on either side of the building and I was in the server room disabling GSuite accounts and remotely locking laptops. Absolutely brutal 40% headcount slash after we lost a major client. And, someone went to the “stay” meeting that was escorted to the correct meeting by a manager too.
- tibbydudeza 5y ago
  Reminds me of The Joker breaking a cuestick in half and throwing it to the two surviving henchman and saying "Good News - there is a new position opening up in my organization".

brezelnbitte 5y ago

There’s a much better way to do this and while it’s time-consuming it’s the right thing to do. You have their immediate manager reach out individually with an HR Business Partner on the call to help manage the conversation and answer immediate questions about severance, immigration etc. May need to some group calls where whole teams are let go but as personal as possible is the goal. I’ve seen it done this way where there more than 1000 so it’s doable with large RIFs. By doing it this way you also maintain a chance they’ll come back when you’re doing better and that you won’t risk expensive wrongful termination claims.

addingnumbers 5y ago

> Perhaps the author could read up on how his own employer does layoffs They did it the normal way, individual private notification. It would be remiss not to mention it afterward at the next all-hands meeting. > They’ll hire you over video chat and fire you over video chat. They didn't hire anyone on a one-way broadcast-only video conference with 900 attendees.

ergocoder 5y ago
> They did it the normal way, individual private notification. Over a messaging app? How is that normal or better? > They didn't hire anyone on a one-way broadcast-only video conference with 900 attendees. CEO doesn't hire anyone individually either. So, is it better to push this layoff responsibility to the hiring manager? I have no idea why hiring and firing need to be symmetrical. When I was hired, I was congrat'ed by multiple people through personal email. Should we keep that symmetry as well? Or should we be arbitrarily selective?
- addingnumbers 5y ago
  > Over a messaging app? Who said a messaging app? The Vice story says Google Meet video chat. > How is that normal or better? Most people don't want to be entirely impassive spectators while someone who can't see or hear them upends their career plans with uncontested fluffy business jargon. > So, is it better to push this layoff responsibility to the hiring manager? Yes, I've been laid off once and a colleague twice, and that's how it's gone each time. The whole reason there are articles written about this incident is that it's so sensationally exceptional.

animalgonzales 5y ago

there's a special place in hell for billionaires laying people off with one week severance before Christmas.

robbedpeter 5y ago
This is the type of stuff that breaks people. Awful company, I hope the bad press eradicates them, and the ceo loses everything.
erulabs 5y ago
I'm not disagreeing at all, and I don't know the details in this case, but it's entirely possible to be a billionaire on paper and be _wildly_ incapable of paying salaries to 900 people. 900 x ~150,000 = 135,000,000. If the company was losing 100M a year during the next valuation moment, it's very possible this CEO would no longer be even close to being a billionaire. Cash in hand and valuation are very different things. Again, not excusing any of this, the video was extremely cringe and I can't believe he went with "for those of you in the US, we'll be doing the legal minimum, for everyone else, sorry!", but as someone who is "worth" almost a million dollars, and who cannot afford to hire even a single person, it's not always so simple. All that said, 900 * (150000 / 12) == 11250000, so I have a hard time imagining it wouldn't have been worth 1M for a fairly well known tech company with loads of funding to avoid this horrific press and karma.