On a daily basis I probably get 200+ emails, probably more if I am not traveling. Email is great with so many things. Clearly it is a great communication device to keep in touch with your clients, staff, new business development team and the finance group if you need a quick answer. It is great for trying to nail down meetings with staff or clients that tend to be busy. Clearly it saves everyone who uses it effectively hours a day.
Not a week goes by that I don’t say or hear someone saying “What did we ever do without the Internet”. I am sure each of you have said or heard the same thing.
Over the past few months I have heard of two situations were companies have actually fired or downsized employees by sending them an email. At first I didn’t believe what I was hearing, but after doing a little research it was true. Companies are laying off their staff by sending out an email. To me that is so impersonal to notify a staff member that way, even if the person didn’t do a great job. In fact let me take it one step further and say the person did a horrible job. I still don’t believe they should be notified by a machine and then be asked to report to the cafeteria to receive further instructions. It just seems to me to be cold, callous and frankly has no place in today’s business world.
- Do you agree?
- Should the Web be used for this?
- What else shouldn’t the Web be used for?
I look forward to your comments and thoughts.
Christine Farber-Cook says:
I can not imagine doing this to someone. I believe that when you let someone go that this should be done in way that will leaves them with some dignity and self respect intact when they pack up and walk out the door. As well I think exit interviews are a great way to get feedback.
I have had to let some good people go for doing something stupid. This may have happened because they were not thinking or just young yet in their experience. This said, I handle this with these rules in hopes that they will learn and grow through the experience. I can think of two case right off the top of my head in the past couple years in which both have since thanked me because they learned something and are thriving with their new roles…in yes….Marketing Research…and yes, with a couple company’s that I am sure we all know. This is at the end of the day is a win win for everyone!
Dan Krason says:
Cowardice. A company that uses email to terminate employees is a company to steer away from. It is often said that someone’s character is best judged when that person is forced to address a difficult situations. This holds true for corporations too. After all, if a company treats its employees poorly, why should its customers or business partners expect to be treated differently?
Email is incredibly valuable, but we have to be careful not to over-use it. We’ve all received email messages that created more questions than they answered. Was the sender angry? Misinformed? Hurried? Distracted? A poor writer? Or a combination of everything listed? Rather than trying to dissect someone’s intent — or start an unnecessary email chain — I think its a great idea to pick op the phone (or walk down the hall). Verbal cues and eye contact are often the best way to quickly and immediately erase any miscues.
I think this is especially true when so many of us (including me) use smartphones. Those tiny keyboards sometimes force us to write cryptic messages which can be easily mis-read — and just as easily fixed with a quick phone call.
Tom Champion says:
This is terrible. Merrill, someone we both worked for was fond of saying that terminating an employee should never be easy and should always be done in a way to leave the persons dignity intact.
And here I thought use of the”reply all” button was the worst things companies did with e-mail!
Merrill Dubrow says:
Tom,
Thanks for your comments. You are 100% right. Our mentor and friend John Boni would be very unhappy and troubled at the way this was handled.
Business today is operated at light-speed at so many times – but once in awhile we all need to slow down and do the right thing.
Merrill
Stacey Weber says:
My brother works for Radio Shack, which is probably one of the companies mentioned above. The corporate office laid off about 20% of their staff (about 400 people), last year. I agree it’s impersonal and my brother said it was an odd place to be that day and the days immediately following. Morale is still horrible there and they’ve gone through several smaller layoffs since, same style.
In Radio Shack’s case, they notified everyone by email the day before the lay off that there would be a lay off and those who were going to be laid off would receive an email the next day alerting them. I suppose they thought this would be the most efficient way in which to lay off a huge number of people at the same time, but it only reinforces people’s feelings that corporate America doesn’t care about the individual. I don’t think corporate America would accept a resignation via email from an employee, but maybe this will become the norm. This is an example of a bad use of technology.
I guess there is no good way to do it, but I don’t think the upper management who thought laying people off by email was a good idea would appreciate a cold, form letter, without the decency of human interaction, if they end up getting canned themselves one day.
It reminds me of people who have gotten a break-up email from a girlfriend / boyfriend …..it’s classless and just not the way anyone should be treated! It just says, I don’t have the time or the courage to speak to you in person. You’re not worth it!
Merrill Dubrow says:
Stacey,
Thanks for your comments. I had heard Radioshack notified people by email. I wish I knew their motivation – they had to know that it would hurt morale but for some reason didn’t care.
There must be some alternative reason for doing it that way that perhaps we are just missing.
Merrill