Twitter's Layoffs With 'Utmost Respect' Have Begun

At least they saved him the trouble of driving into work. That's pretty humane if you ask me.
 
Let me guess. The company tweeted they were being laid off and then their accounts were disabled. BRILLIANT!!!
 
Having just been laid off elsewhere (my position was deemed not important but then a position created to replace it), I can say that in person isn't much better.
 
Not sure how a layoff can ever be good, but that sucks. I was part of a small team of which management was a few states away; we all sat in cubes where we could all hear each other. They called us all back to back, 3-5 minute phone calls; half got kept, half let go. That was a pretty rough way to handle it, with those let go and those staying having to just stare at each other afterwards.
 
This is rather misleading:
1. He was a remote employee working from home. HR could not visit him personally.
2. HR DID call to notify him, but the call went to voicemail.

I don't know what else they could have done. Can't have an employee be unfireable just because he doesn't answer his phone.
 
Nothing is worse than the corporate laying off of people on the Friday before Christmas.

Merry Christmas
 
I had to notify several workers that they had been laid off,when I picket the company laptop and smartphone. Many of them said it was a mistake and turned to HR only to find out the sad truth. Very odd indeed.
 
" You're Fired!!! Now get the F@#$ out!!! "

Most of my terminations were discovered when my badge didn't work. Security would tell me that I'm no longer on the personnel roster and then asked me to turn in my badge. I haven't had a decent exit interview in probably a decade or more. Today's management and human resources don't want to deal with the consequences of separating someone from their income.
 
" You're Fired!!! Now get the F@#$ out!!! "

Most of my terminations were discovered when my badge didn't work. Security would tell me that I'm no longer on the personnel roster and then asked me to turn in my badge. I haven't had a decent exit interview in probably a decade or more. Today's management and human resources don't want to deal with the consequences of separating someone from their income.

It varies from company to company ... a lot of it depends on the culture and the risk of the employee ... I have been laid off once (from Intel) and it was as good an experience as that can be (I had a good payout including a sabbatical I was eligible for and resume employment services through a contractor) ... I was almost laid off twice from my next employer but I received advance notice and met with HR to prepare paperwork (but I got a last minute reprieve both times) ... each company is a little different in how they handle it
 
" You're Fired!!! Now get the F@#$ out!!! "

Most of my terminations were discovered when my badge didn't work. Security would tell me that I'm no longer on the personnel roster and then asked me to turn in my badge. I haven't had a decent exit interview in probably a decade or more. Today's management and human resources don't want to deal with the consequences of separating someone from their income.

Office space had it nailed 15 years ago:

Peter Gibbons: You're gonna lay off Samir and Michael?
Bob Slydell: Oh yeah, we're gonna bring in some entry-level graduates, farm some work out to Singapore, that's the usual deal.
Bob Porter: Standard operating procedure.
Peter Gibbons: Do they know this yet?
Bob Slydell: No. No, of course not. We find it's always better to fire people on a Friday. Studies have statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week.

Dom Portwood: So, uh, Milton has been let go?
Bob Slydell: Well, just a second there, professor. We, uh, we fixed the *glitch*. So he won't be receiving a paycheck anymore, so it'll just work itself out naturally.
Bob Porter: We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem is solved from your end.
 
Not sure how a layoff can ever be good, but that sucks. I was part of a small team of which management was a few states away; we all sat in cubes where we could all hear each other. They called us all back to back, 3-5 minute phone calls; half got kept, half let go. That was a pretty rough way to handle it, with those let go and those staying having to just stare at each other afterwards.

Talk about odd...

I was a contractor that got laid off from Target (years ago not the recent layoffs).

Our whole floor was mostly contractors...

Came into work one day and it was eerily quiet and a lot less people in their cubes... Got "meetings" called mid day, call center so had a rotation. Where the management informed us they had to lay people off but not to worry they preemptively laid off more people than needed so it won't happen again.

A month later... walk in even more eerie and quiet with my contract manager coming to my desk for a "lets talk". I was part of the 2nd round, wonder if I was the back up pre-preemptive layoff or not?

Then the next week get a call from the contract manager... Target made a mistake and mistakenly laid me off, could I start the next day. Of course I could, just outa school and broke as hell...

Well I had meetings with another contract company... interviews and an offer was made after a week or two being back at Target.

I informed my contract manager that week would be my last and he got all upset, that I wasn't being professional etc etc.

I just responded that while upset about being laid off immediately AND mistakenly, it was perfectly understandable, I was a contractor, that is how it works especially at that entry level. Though it works both ways, I don't have to give any notice either, if Target treated me "professionally", I would have responded in kind.

Couldn't be too hard on the guy he was basically the slave master for Target, they couldn't be bothered with dealing with the "help".

Target was an odd place to work. But I will say it was the best run support desk I ever saw. I literally got a few days training on how to use the ticket/KB system and phone and was let loose to take calls, reboot servers on day one. All of which was cake due to their standardization and awesome documentation. 90% of calls were easily closed right then, a good % of the rest were standard request calls we didn't have ability or access to close.

A very small % had to be escalated to 2nd or 3rd level support.
 
I worked for a company that once fired one of its long time employees by sending all of their office possessions to them via FedEx Next Day Air with a note saying that they were terminated. They had to sign for the package indicating that they received it, which the company used as proof. It was pretty crappy, but companies do it all the time...
 
I've been let go once. My boss told me that I was going to be let go at the end of the year. I was very open about it with my colleagues. The day after, my boss started lying to my colleagues, telling them that I wasn't being let go. He jerked me around until the end of the school year, and then for a month into the summer. He let me go officially a month after he gave my office away (it was over break, but I heard about it anyways). After that, I had to send a nasty letter to the president of the university to get them to remove my name from the course catalog and the website. My boss was trying to use me as a student recruitment tool even though I wasn't being retained.

These situations always suck, but there is a professional way and an unprofessional way to go about it. At least with me, honesty counts. I knew they had budget problems, but my boss wanted to play politics with the rest of the faculty instead of being honest with me.
 
I've been let go once. My boss told me that I was going to be let go at the end of the year. I was very open about it with my colleagues. The day after, my boss started lying to my colleagues, telling them that I wasn't being let go. He jerked me around until the end of the school year, and then for a month into the summer. He let me go officially a month after he gave my office away (it was over break, but I heard about it anyways). After that, I had to send a nasty letter to the president of the university to get them to remove my name from the course catalog and the website. My boss was trying to use me as a student recruitment tool even though I wasn't being retained.

These situations always suck, but there is a professional way and an unprofessional way to go about it. At least with me, honesty counts. I knew they had budget problems, but my boss wanted to play politics with the rest of the faculty instead of being honest with me.

That's par for the course for adjunct professorship, about as much job stability as a house made of cards
 
Human Staff are now no longer an 'asset' they are a 'liability' in the eyes of the all powerful accounts dept.
 
Reminds me of how I got laid off when I was an instructor at the Gateway stores 11 years ago. I found out I was being laid off from watching Headline News before I even heard from my boss about it. After seeing the news, I proceeded to look at the class schedule calendar, only to see classes scheduled for only the next few days. The rest of the week following that was a note saying "store closing". I tried to get a hold of my boss to get the details, but they didn't have much to say. Apparently, the bomb was dropped on them too and she was drowning her sorrows at the bar.

Around that time Gateway was closing some of its stores here and there, consolidating. As an instructor who teaches at multiple locations throughout the week, I didn't see it as being a big impact on me. But Gateway decided out of the middle of nowhere that closing some stores wasn't going to be enough and decided to shutter all of the stores. From announcement day to the day the store closed for good was only 1 week! They didn't even give us the same courtesy they ask of us when it comes to submitting a resignation notice, which 2 weeks is usually considered proper business etiquette.

Everyone got a severance package, with the amount being based on how many years you worked there. I was less than 2 months away from having another year of service tacked on. But since the severance was determined solely by years completed and not prorated for the months following, I lost out on a decent chunk of severance pay. Since I had to pay for COBRA, every little bit could have helped during the 4+ months I was unemployed.

Oh! And to top it all off, Gateway thought it was a great idea to make this announcement on April Fool's Day! Needless to say, it put a sour taste in my mouth for a while.
 
Nothing is worse than the corporate laying off of people on the Friday before Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Back in 2014 I was informed that I was one of several being laid off from the IT dept at a small university. They offered us a month severance, resume/unemployment benefits help, and the option to continue working for a month and drawing salary while pursuing other positions, to have time to wind down current projects etc. This was in March.

When word got out that I was being let go, I was almost immediately offered a position in the Finance dept. I had doubts, but it was a raise, a job, and keeping seniority/tuition benefits for my 10-yr-old son one day, etc. Potential new boss was very gung-ho and visionary about the whole thing. Gave up my severance because I never left, but hey, a job is better, right?

As I had feared, it wasn't a great fit, though I tried very hard. Got called in on Friday, Dec. 12th, "Today is your last day." Three week severance, no work-to-layoff option. Merry Christmas. I had bought a car two months prior.

My senior co-worker who had trained me stopped by to talk and was acting strange. As we talked, it turned out that they had just given her the same treatment, and we both assumed the other one had been briefed that they were taking on our work duties. She had bought a car earlier that same WEEK.

Moral of the story--never buy a car.
 
This is the kind of move you make before you sell because the new owners don't want to start off as the 'bad guy'.
 
At least I got out a few years ago on a good payout.

1 month salary for each year plus any paid vacation outstanding. I walked away with the equivalent of 20 months pay.
 
This guy is being a baby over his own decision to not pick up his phone when they tried to contact him.
 
This guy is being a baby over his own decision to not pick up his phone when they tried to contact him.

He might have been in a different time zone or started his shift later and still been sleeping....
 
He might have been in a different time zone or started his shift later and still been sleeping....

Ok, and a company still needs to do things like disable accounts and such. It's not their problem that he didn't pick up the phone. Yeah, layoffs generally suck but as a company you don't want laid off employee #23 finding out from #15 or whatever that the entire department got sacked, but #23 still has access because they didn't answer the phone for whatever reason.
 
Back
Top