Remote Layoffs

ray a · August 2006

Read in the news today that Radio Shack laid off 400 employees notifying them by email. I'm not sure which is more surprising, the method of notification or that they still had than many ee's. Would've made my job much easier last Friday if I had done that.

LarryC · August 2006

Ray, I know you and that is something that you would not do. You wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you did do it that way.

mwild31 · August 2006

I just read the article myself. I'm honestly shocked by the callous nature of Radio Shack & the decision to notify people by email. This seems so far removed from everything we in the HR world strive to do - treating people with respect. I'm just speechless...

ray a · August 2006

Chances are the decision was removed from HR's hands. When we had our reductions last week I had to report in throughout the day to my boss at corporate and he in turn kept the CEO informed. Our CEO is very big on treating people respectfully especially in these situations.

mwild31 · August 2006

Hi Ray

How did you end up doing it? Did you call people into a conference room and let them know?

ray a · September 2006

I didn't do it like at Radio Shack. Larry was right, I couldn't do it that way, not that it even crossed my mind. I spoke to the 3 exempt ee's individually with their director present. Then we shuttled the non-exempt ee's into a conference room in groups of 2 to 6 depending on how quickly the supervisors were able to gather them up. By the time we finished with a group the next was ready. The press started calling about 2 hours after we started the process.

HRCalico · August 2006

I would be the idiot that didn't check her e-mail and have some red-faced higher-up have to come to my office and ask me to leave. There isn't a good way to do this sort of thing, but there certainly are REALLY bad ways of handling it.

Open1 · August 2006

I can't help but think Radio Shack plans to go out of business, file bankruptcy, etc. It almost seems like they're seeking claims for undue emotional distress. Certainly, at the very least, they shattered some poor employees who had been giving it their best day in and day out.

Still reeling over the lack of sensitivity, the robotic method, the implications...........

Does anyone have the name of the "decision-maker" who orchestrated this? No doubt moved to a country where extradition is not possible, probably with a large bank account. xx(

This makes HR look bad all across the country, causes fear in every employee who works on a computer, and what can we do to change this? I imagine some of the ensuing litigation will decide this for us. And if it doesn't... xpray

Remote Layoffs

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