4 ms·
Absolutely true store: I once knew a professional hatchet man (a person spineless companies hire to fire large numbers of employees -- usually to fire an entire
by smoody 18y ago
Absolutely true store: I once knew a professional hatchet man (a person spineless companies hire to fire large numbers of employees -- usually to fire an entire building of people). He told me once that he was part of a team that had to fire everyone working at an office building that held two-to-three hundred people from the looks of it. They were doing a lot of secretive work, so it was important that both everyone find out at the same time and security guards must escort them to their desks -- both measures to prevent anyone stealing documents or information of any kind.
So here's what they did: They pulled one of the fire alarms. Everyone, thinking it was a fire or drill, exited the building. Then this man, from inside the building, put a bullhorn to his mouth and said "Attention! This is not a drill! You're all fired!" (thinking, of course, that it was a clever play on words). They then let people back in one by one to collect their personal items and that was that.
- lutorm 18y agoThis is why workers need unions.
- Tichy 18y agoWhy? To prevent the psychological damage from being fired in an unfriendly way? I don't know, how about "get over it"? At the end of the day, fired is fired, no matter if it was friendly or unfriendly.
- gaius 18y agoYou're (slightly) more likely to get a decent severance package. Statutory minimum here in the UK is #330/year of service, regardless of your salary. Most people consider 1 month's salary per year of service + 1 month in lieu of notice to be reasonable, but it's entirely at the company's discretion.
- dmv 18y agoSimilar to a bit on Arrested Development: http://www.hulu.com/watch/12317/arrested-development-family-ties#s-p1-so-i0 http://www.hulu.com/watch/12317/arrested-development-family-... Michael: No, no, no, no, pop. You're not doing another one of those Black Fridays, are you? The mass firings? Narrator: Before firing his employees, George Sr. would be sure to clear the office of its valuables. [Employees loading a truck full of office equipment] Ted: So when do we get to see our fancy new offices? George Sr.: [closing the truck door] When you get your fancy new jobs. You're all fired. Narrator: The employees never saw it coming, although their first task was to unload their equipment from a truck.
- sysop073 18y ago(starts at 4:05)
- mynameishere 18y agoI doubt that's true. Pulling a fire alarm like that is illegal. Committing a crime in order to insult 100s of people, while those same people witness the crime, is not the best idea.
- Chocobean 18y agomaybe in another country? maybe a long time ago? altho if the person needed to fire people this way for security reasons, allowing all of them into the building at the same time sounds like a bad idea.
- ars 18y agoNot if he pulled it as a drill - just notify the fire department first, and say we are having a drill at so and so oclock.