4 ms·

There is nothing inhumane about announcing layoffs over Zoom though. Hell I'd prefer to be laid off in the least personal way possible because I'm a grown-ass a

There is nothing inhumane about announcing layoffs over Zoom though. Hell I'd prefer to be laid off in the least personal way possible because I'm a grown-ass adult who doesn't need my company to treat my like a child. Tell me and get it over with.

garciasn 2mo ago
Just like a mass wedding is fucking stupid, so is a mass layoff. You can have the fucking common decency to do a 1:1 Zoom call with each person. Or at least each fucking team. Firing 900 people simultaneously is not only stupid and callous, but lazy. There’s absolutely no excuse for that level of inhumanity.
- Pedro_Ribeiro 2mo ago
  What does it matter if it's an HR person or the CEO telling me? The job is not coming back either way.
  - happytoexplain 2mo ago
    Not who, how.
  - swat535 2mo ago
    I don't understand this either. It's a professional environment and all you're doing is a business transaction: you offer them services, they pay you. My phone provider doesn't have an emotional breakdown when I fire them, why should I? People should never take anything corporations do personally. This is why all the messaging about "we're a family" is BS.. The biggest issue is the lack of safety net and healthcare for people when they are let go.. severance kind of take care of this but it varies greatly. But hey.. perhaps working in this industry for decades has made me too cynical.
    - Timon3 2mo ago
      This is an incredibly privileged perspective. > My phone provider doesn't have an emotional breakdown when I fire them, why should I? You really can't think of a single reason why an employee would have an emotional breakdown when being fired without it being their fault, or see the difference between a person losing their job vs. a company with thousands+ customers losing a single customer?
- BeetleB 2mo ago
  I don't know. Pre-pandemic, when doing mass layoffs, it wasn't unusual for a company to hold a giant update meeting and let everyone know they're shutting down the division and that everyone's been laid off. How is this different?
  - happytoexplain 2mo ago
    Shutting down is a subset of reasons for mass layoffs. They are not equivalent. Disregarding that, it's not very different. What is the implication you're making? That it's good because it's common?
    - BeetleB 2mo ago
      > Shutting down is a subset of reasons for mass layoffs. Not shutting down the company, but shutting down a division. The reasons are almost always the same. > Disregarding that, it's not very different. What is the implication you're making? That it's good because it's common? Having been at a company that had several rounds of layoffs over several years, I can assure you there's no way to do a layoff were people won't complain (and the complaints can be quite petty). In the last round, it was the manager scheduling calls to let people know. He scheduled them over two days (not enough hours in the day to do everyone). We're all in a team meeting (without the manager), and random people are just piping up "Oh wow. I just got a meeting request." Each of them knew they were getting laid off just by the mere fact of getting a calendar invite. So they have to spend the rest of the day waiting to formally hear what they already know when their time comes. I dunno. Not saying it's worse than what this CEO did, but I can't see it being better either.
      - ThrowawayTestr 2mo ago
        >So they have to spend the rest of the day waiting to formally hear what they already know when their time comes. That's a good thing. More time to steal shit from the office.
        Smoosh 2mo ago
- yumraj 2mo ago
  Why are mass weddings stupid? They save each person shit ton of cash and end result is the same. I’ll argue that over the top destination weddings are the ones that are stupid. Save the money for the down payment for a home.
- ThrowawayR2 2mo ago
  > "You can have the fucking common decency to do a 1:1 Zoom call with each person." My employer is not my family. Why would I even want the 1:1 call? It's awkward and pointless. Nothing that is said there will change the situation and saying the wrong thing can harm the employee.
  - froindt 2mo ago
    I have never viewed my employer as family. I have been laid off though. My manager and HR were in the room. They handled it incredibly well, and I have spoken of them very highly for years. I can't imagine I'd feel the same way if the CEO spoke to me during a mass layoff.
mingus88 2mo ago
I am an adult but I am also a human I would expect a layoff with the same level of care as onboarding. If that’s done 900 people at a time over Zoom, cool. We all know we’re part of a herd. It just sucks and is completely unnecessary to treat people like garbage on their way out if you have a company culture that otherwise treats people well.
- Petersipoi 2mo ago
  Sounds like we're in agreement that a layoff can be done just fine and humanely in a group setting over Zoom.

garciasn 2mo ago

Just like a mass wedding is fucking stupid, so is a mass layoff. You can have the fucking common decency to do a 1:1 Zoom call with each person. Or at least each fucking team. Firing 900 people simultaneously is not only stupid and callous, but lazy. There’s absolutely no excuse for that level of inhumanity.

Pedro_Ribeiro 2mo ago
What does it matter if it's an HR person or the CEO telling me? The job is not coming back either way.
- happytoexplain 2mo ago
  Not who, how.
- swat535 2mo ago
  I don't understand this either. It's a professional environment and all you're doing is a business transaction: you offer them services, they pay you. My phone provider doesn't have an emotional breakdown when I fire them, why should I? People should never take anything corporations do personally. This is why all the messaging about "we're a family" is BS.. The biggest issue is the lack of safety net and healthcare for people when they are let go.. severance kind of take care of this but it varies greatly. But hey.. perhaps working in this industry for decades has made me too cynical.
  - Timon3 2mo ago
    This is an incredibly privileged perspective. > My phone provider doesn't have an emotional breakdown when I fire them, why should I? You really can't think of a single reason why an employee would have an emotional breakdown when being fired without it being their fault, or see the difference between a person losing their job vs. a company with thousands+ customers losing a single customer?
BeetleB 2mo ago
I don't know. Pre-pandemic, when doing mass layoffs, it wasn't unusual for a company to hold a giant update meeting and let everyone know they're shutting down the division and that everyone's been laid off. How is this different?
- happytoexplain 2mo ago
  Shutting down is a subset of reasons for mass layoffs. They are not equivalent. Disregarding that, it's not very different. What is the implication you're making? That it's good because it's common?
  - BeetleB 2mo ago
    > Shutting down is a subset of reasons for mass layoffs. Not shutting down the company, but shutting down a division. The reasons are almost always the same. > Disregarding that, it's not very different. What is the implication you're making? That it's good because it's common? Having been at a company that had several rounds of layoffs over several years, I can assure you there's no way to do a layoff were people won't complain (and the complaints can be quite petty). In the last round, it was the manager scheduling calls to let people know. He scheduled them over two days (not enough hours in the day to do everyone). We're all in a team meeting (without the manager), and random people are just piping up "Oh wow. I just got a meeting request." Each of them knew they were getting laid off just by the mere fact of getting a calendar invite. So they have to spend the rest of the day waiting to formally hear what they already know when their time comes. I dunno. Not saying it's worse than what this CEO did, but I can't see it being better either.
    - ThrowawayTestr 2mo ago
      >So they have to spend the rest of the day waiting to formally hear what they already know when their time comes. That's a good thing. More time to steal shit from the office.
      - Smoosh 2mo ago
yumraj 2mo ago
Why are mass weddings stupid? They save each person shit ton of cash and end result is the same. I’ll argue that over the top destination weddings are the ones that are stupid. Save the money for the down payment for a home.
ThrowawayR2 2mo ago
> "You can have the fucking common decency to do a 1:1 Zoom call with each person." My employer is not my family. Why would I even want the 1:1 call? It's awkward and pointless. Nothing that is said there will change the situation and saying the wrong thing can harm the employee.
- froindt 2mo ago
  I have never viewed my employer as family. I have been laid off though. My manager and HR were in the room. They handled it incredibly well, and I have spoken of them very highly for years. I can't imagine I'd feel the same way if the CEO spoke to me during a mass layoff.

mingus88 2mo ago

I am an adult but I am also a human I would expect a layoff with the same level of care as onboarding. If that’s done 900 people at a time over Zoom, cool. We all know we’re part of a herd. It just sucks and is completely unnecessary to treat people like garbage on their way out if you have a company culture that otherwise treats people well.

Petersipoi 2mo ago
Sounds like we're in agreement that a layoff can be done just fine and humanely in a group setting over Zoom.