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The fact that it was over the phone is a legitimate insult. The fact that it was 100 seconds long is a mercy.

• aaronharder 13y ago
  Honest question, why is a phone firing such an insult? I may need some sensitivity training, but putting myself in the shoes of the person being fired I think I'd probably prefer phone. Maybe someone can help me see the other point of view more clearly.
  • IvyMike 13y ago
    As smackfu says, it is not always possible to do a layoff or firing in person, especially in this case. I still think they should have been done in one-on-one phone calls at a minimum. But people have a spectrum of reactions to being fired, and I think being able to address their immediate concerns one-on-one is important. They may have done it this way in the name of efficiency, but some times it is better to just take the hit and do things the old fashioned way. Nobody is happy about being laid off, but six months from now both employer and ex-employee will feel better about it than the impersonal conference call.
• smackfu 13y ago
  Most of Patch's employees are remote, since they are "hyperlocal" reporters in small towns around the country. I don't think an in-person lay-off was going to happen.
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• at-fates-hands 13y ago
  I've had worse. One company I worked for was acquired by a much larger tech company. We were already had about a 1000 employees. After the big announcement that we were being acquired, we all got an invite from the new company to meet the new executive team at their big corporate HQ. Got bused over, we were all shepherded into a huge auditorium only to have the CEO of the larger company tell us we were all being let go and turn in our ID's to the security folks now standing at the exits. It was the quietest bus ride I've ever been on during the return trip.