Re: Your Fired

August 30th, 2006

Breaking up over the phone is cowardly. Breaking up using instant messenger is cowardly and modern. Firing 400 people using email is cowardly, modern, and efficient.

“Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated,” is the email that 400 RadioShack employees received letting them know they were no longer welcome at the “shack.” This sounds like a totally cold way to break this news, but evidently there were many meetings letting people know this was coming. It sounds like it was a lottery where everyone gets a ticket and there are 400 losers–Congratulations.

Some people complained that this should have been done face-to-face, but why bother. I have been in these meetings, and there is not much to say. It’s not like you can ask for your job back. After the shock, there are just questions about severance and extending health insurance. What better way than to have an email that hits you in the head about all of these things? Plus, it takes a long time to notify 400 people. At 15 minutes per person, that would be 100 hours of effort. Once the process started, everyone would wait in agony wondering if they were to be called next. The email method is like ripping the band-aid off quickly–sure it hurts, but it’s over quick.

Just think of the poor sap that showed up to work because his firing email was filtered as spam!

P.S. It always makes me a little made that the last line of these stories is about how the company’s stock rose in value after such a move. Congratulations.

RadioShack lays off employees via e-mail - Yahoo News

Entry Filed under: Current Events, Digital Living

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