It was stressful enough for Fionn Kellas to suddenly lose his retail job. But getting the news via WhatsApp instead of in person made it worse.
“It was an absolute shock to me,” Kellas said, recalling the pain of being fired in such an abrupt and cold manner.
Months later, the memory of being fired from a Toronto-area candy store is still painful for Kellas.
“I was crying.”
A file photo from March shows a WhatsApp logo on a phone screen. It’s the same messaging app that a manager used to fire Fionn Kellas from a Toronto-area candy store. Stories of employers using email, Zoom and other technology tools to deliver layoff notices have been in the headlines since the pandemic. (AFP/Getty Images)
Using technology to deliver this kind of bad news, whether through email, video calls or similar tools, is an approach some organizations have taken during the pandemic, but employees and experts say it ignores the people on the receiving end of job losses.
“I think it’s another example that we’re not really getting around the best use of technology,” said Paula Allen, senior vice president of research and total wellness at human resources firm LifeWorks.
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Twitter employees receive news of layoffs by email
Simon Balmain tells Reuters how he learned he was losing his job at Twitter, news that was relayed by email.
Sign in for layoffs
Thousands of employees at tech companies Meta and Twitter recently learned of confirmation of their layoffs via email.
This was months after hundreds of UK ferry workers were sacked via a Zoom call. Workers at online auto retailer Carvana learned of similar big job cuts in the spring.
In May, Carvana, an online auto retailer, announced it was laying off 2,500 workers, some of whom found out on a Zoom call. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
While these mass layoffs at big companies have made headlines, it’s not just big companies that are using these tools to part ways with staff.
For Kellas, the jarring news of the job loss came from the manager of the small store.
“I’ve moved on from that, but it’s still kind of ‘What the F?’ kind of situation,” said Kellas, who noted that the manager could have made the moment a little less harsh by calling.
But a phone call may not be so welcome in all cases either.
Kelsee Douglas found out she was losing her job at a Saskatchewan hearing clinic halfway through her workday last winter.
First came an email notifying her of a surprise meeting. Then came the conference call, during which he was told his job was being terminated, immediately.
“I was very, very surprised,” said Douglas, who had been on the job for two and a half years.
Paula Allen of human resources firm LifeWorks said employers don’t always know the personal circumstances workers may find themselves in at the time of a layoff or termination notice. (Submitted by Paula Allen)
Allen, the HR firm’s leader, said it’s key for organizations to provide support to employees, such as counseling and career training, as they adjust to their new reality.
He warned that employers may not know the full range of personal circumstances people face at the time of a layoff or termination notice, nor how hard employees will take the news.
“A lot of people are facing a lot of problems and they come into the office every day and this is the last straw that makes it very difficult for them to see the next step.”
A pandemic upswing
Sixteen years ago, consumer electronics retailer RadioShack notified 400 employees they were losing their jobs via email.
At the time, prominent Labor leader Bruce Raynor said it was an “outrageous way to treat human beings”.
But it seems to have become more common, especially during the pandemic.
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Joanne Gallop was fired from Canopy Growth in a mass layoff of 200 employees, via video chat platform Zoom. Illustrations by Chelle Lorenzen.
Cannabis company Canopy Growth used a Zoom announcement to lay off 200 employees in 2020.
Just last year, 900 people at Better.com learned they were letting go during a much-criticized Zoom call.
And 700 people at Swedish payments company Klarna were told about cuts in a recorded message in May, after which employees had to wait for an email to find out if they were affected.
Janet Candido, a Toronto-based human resources consultant, said she hopes the remote termination approach “doesn’t become mainstream.”
He said the use of these methods appears to have expanded during the pandemic. As more people started using these tools to work remotely, this same technology was being used to let some of them go.
Camilla Boyer, a UK-based executive communications consultant, believes globalization has also contributed.
“Companies with employees spread out around the world don’t have the option of getting everyone together in a room or meeting them face-to-face in an office the way it used to be,” said Boyer, who has helped advise. companies laid off in the past.
“This has resulted in greater use of technology to carry out reductions in force,” he said in an email.
Camilla Boyer, a UK-based executive communications consultant, believes the increased use of messaging technologies and globalization are contributing factors to companies firing staff without a personal conversation. (Submitted by Camilla Boyer)
Improvement march
“I think there are good and bad sides to the practice,” Martha Maznevski, a professor of organizational behavior at Western University in London, Ontario, told CBC News by email.
Maznevski said the process is “completely dispassionate and cold” and leaves little goodwill among departing employees. But it can also be an efficient way to share key information, especially in organizations that are geographically distributed.
Nadia Zaman, an employment lawyer at Rudner Law in Markham, Ont., said “employers should be cautious about conducting layoffs by video or other similar methods.”
Aspects of these tools, he noted, can allow an employer to hold discussions privately and confidentially.
Twitter employees are seen entering the company’s offices in New York last week. New owner Elon Musk recently sent an email asking staff to click “yes” if they wanted to stay. Those who did not respond within a certain time frame would be considered terminated and given a severance package. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
In the long term, Allen doesn’t expect these practices to go away: People will continue to be hired remotely and let go in the same way in some cases.
Regardless of the circumstances, he said consideration of the person should be at the center of the process.
“I think it’s the way you do it that needs a little more care.”