I guess talking to each person individually and showing them at least a modicum of respect would have taken too long (Time is money friend!) so they decided to just get it done in one swell swoop. Yes, it might have been more efficient, but it also made it clear once more to the affected employees (and the rest of us) just how little they think of and care about us.
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@kje. I knew they were lying from the outset because I have seen it before. You can bet they will hire in India to replace people too. I have seen that too. I got the he-l out of that area at the first opportunity. I tried to tell my coworkers what was coming, some listened but most did not.
This thread is a bunch of people who got cut trying to rationalize. Face it, you got cut, which means you were not wanted. I'm not trying to be mean here, but you got screwed, do not except it and let the company off the hook. It does not matter if you were smiled at on the way our the door. You are now unemployed! Take a lesson from this and never let it happen to you agian.
@OP+1bwZHoQD
I got laid off and I could not care less how they told me. It’s the package that I care. I rather having a group laid off than facing the awkwardness meeting with my manager alone
When Twitter did layoffs, the way people found out was that they came to work and couldn't log in or access their email. So a group call seems humane by comparison.
If an entire team is being eliminated, you really can't tell people one by one... because then you are in effect telling person A that person B is about to get displaced, before person B is told. That is also completely disrespectful.
Consumer Lending Tech
by clt do you mean consumer lending technology or Charlotte?
They lied by telling QA if you put in the work to learn automation and embraced the changes there would be a place for us in CLT. We put in the work and are now out of a job.
@wwb, we are all 1bwZHoQD.
1bwZHoQD, what did they lie about?
I was in the large group that got let go yesterday. It was the entire CLT QA staff. The message wasn't delivered by my mgr, it was from 2 or 3 up mgr. The group setting didn't bother me but the way it was explained and lack of information did. Also the fact that we have been lied to for over a year really bothers me since trust is a big emphasis in WF right now. My direct mgr was great about wanting to help in any way.
Serious quality control and efficiency issues with a manager making 26 individual phone calls to provide the exact same information to a group of people. There's a thread here about 200 being laid off by a single notifying manager. You really think it's the smart thing to do to have someone make 200 individual phone calls for this? And you really believe that call 200 would meet the same standards of quality and compliance? Makes no sense. Things would be missed and it'd cause a huge mess. Bottom line there's no good way to convey this information, and no one wants to convey it. Hearing it in person, or as an individual wouldn't make me feel better about it, at all. To each their own though, if it'd make other people feel better, 'ok'.
As a manager, I was asked to let 2 employees go yesterday. For those who weren't in QA roles, we did make an individual call to discuss with each employee. It was not easy, and my preference would have been in person if not for COVID. We did not have a script, but did have a lit of items to cover such as overview, timing, messaging and next steps. For my case, we had the opportunity to then discuss with my larger team immediately after. Not a great day, but managed the best we could based on limitations.
@fns+1bwZHoQD I’ve been on both sides of the layoff desk, so I do have empathy for managers who have to break the bad news. But I don’t think concern about word leaking out when layoffs happen one-by-one justifies this approach. Based on this site, most employees strongly suspected layoffs were happening yesterday, and the grapevine was on fire. Laying off by group didn’t change that. I’ve worked in 3 large companies that had layoffs, and that never changes.
I’m not in the impacted group, but believe the only time this might be justified is when an entire group is displaced and the message is…. this whole work group is being eliminated. In that case, I see your point that the first person would be displaced and call everyone else… “ our group is being disbanded.” I don’t believe the entire WF group in question was laid off yesterday, though. Could be wrong.
All employees are impacted during layoffs. Survivors feel crummy for those displaced, and maybe even have survivor’s guilt. Managers have the awful job of telling employees they’ve been let go, and answering survivor’s questions after. But no one feels worse than the people displaced, so expecting folks to worry that much about the managers’ feelings seems a bit…tone deaf.
To be fair though, the individual phone calls are just as impersonal. It didn't really matter. The manager reads from a script and won't answer any questions.
Its brutal. But they don't give a damn. Sad but true. Just look at how poorly those branch bankers were treated for years over account opening goals, bullied, abused, pressured, etc. They have no shame. And to the person below claiming the OP has no emapthy skills, GFY. The managers here a SHEEP and could of pushed back or flat out refused to lay ppl off in a group call, they can say NO!! But they're obedient sheep.
2009-ish, my small WFHE PM team was pulled into a room and mass-canned. I was the only one to survive that, IIRC, because I was somewhat technical. Boy, was it hard watching some very close friends empty out their desks while I sat there all still employed.
The reason people are told in groups is that it's essential for the word to come from management, not through the grapevine. Would you prefer if one of your peers sent you an IM or told you by the water cooler and let the cat out of the bag? You should work on your empathy skills, then maybe you'll understand how incredibly $#!+y it is to be the manager that has to lay someone off. It's the worst thing ever, precisely because many managers DO care about their team.
This management team has never had any respect for employees, or pretended to. Why would they start when they were in the process of kicking them to the curb ?