OUCH! That hurt me and I don't even work there. That was as cold as a block of ice, but I'm sure workers at Patch had to see this one coming after the last fiasco.
Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
111–120 of 162 posts
Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#112The fact that it was over the phone is a legitimate insult. The fact that it was 100 seconds long is a mercy.
Honest question, why is a phone firing such an insult? I may need some sensitivity training, but putting myself in the shoes of the person being fired I think I'd probably prefer phone. Maybe someone can help me see the other point of view more clearly.
As smackfu says, it is not always possible to do a layoff or firing in person, especially in this case. I still think they should have been done in one-on-one phone calls at a minimum.
But people have a spectrum of reactions to being fired, and I think being able to address their immediate concerns one-on-one is important. They may have done it this way in the name of efficiency, but some times it is better to just take the hit and do things the old fashioned way. Nobody is happy about being laid off, but six months from now both employer and ex-employee will feel better about it than the impersonal conference call.
Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#113Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#114Wow. That was incredible. The monotonous way in which the message was delivered, the complete lack of emotion and empathy, is appalling. Notice she did not apologize nor express any condolences beyond declaring the new unemployed state of those people to be "unfortunate." Without knowing much about the situation (I only listened to the recording), and leaving myself wide open to be corrected by someone with more insi…
I heard it as coldly professional. What, do you think they'd want a hug? I object to your use of "appalling". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7zkd0kRS4
Still better than the time we were called into an all hands to find out our entire business unit had been sold, and the VP responsible for the sale joked in front of everybody "hey, I still have a job!"
Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#115Wow. That was incredible. The monotonous way in which the message was delivered, the complete lack of emotion and empathy, is appalling. Notice she did not apologize nor express any condolences beyond declaring the new unemployed state of those people to be "unfortunate." Without knowing much about the situation (I only listened to the recording), and leaving myself wide open to be corrected by someone with more insi…
I heard it as coldly professional. What, do you think they'd want a hug? I object to your use of "appalling". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7zkd0kRS4
Why do professional and being nice have to be mutually exclusive ? Why do we have to be "coldly professional" and not "morally/humanly professional" ? No one is complaining about layoffs here. What is being complained about is the way companies are treating their employees. I don't expect a handout or a hug and can find my own work if I get fired. But if you fire me the way these guys did, you will surely never be on my list of good people. May be that does not matter to some.
Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, did you know you were going to be laid off too?
I don't think so. As I understand it, they wished things had worked out better for him because he was a founder/exec and a bunch of layoffs means it's already going down the drain.
What happened was that post acquisition there were 3 or so rounds of lay offs each removing about 50% of staff until there was maybe a dozen of us left from the original acquired team. In an attempt to save the team we pitched a new product, which actually had customer interest, to the CEO of the acquirer and he promised he would think about it and come back with an answer.
On the day when we got the call from the CEO to tell us whether our proposal was good or not rather than it being myself and our Director of Engineering on our side of the call we had all twelve in the room (although the guys on the other side of the call had no idea).
We were told it wasn't going to happen, so everyone knew at that point what was going to happen next. I seem to remember something like laying most of the remaining people off, going to see the HR manager - finding out that my severance package wasn't going to be what I thought it was and I could take a cheque there and then or fight it in court.
By that point I was so tired of the whole thing I took the cheque without a fight and moved on....
[NB I was involved in actually doing a substantial portion of the lay offs in each phase - after a while people really did not want to have 1 on 1 meetings with me].
Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say "American" (edit- instead of "non-Australian"). It's pretty common in other English dialects. There's a great series called "The Story of Film" which is narrated by an Irish guy who uses rising inflection on nearly every sentence. It's difficult for me to get used to but I wouldn't give anyone a hard time about it. edit2 - fixed title. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Film:_An_Odyssey It's avail…
The irish and welsh accents have always been like that. The welsh accent in particular modulates in pitch strongly throughout sentences, going up at the end is just part of it. There's a thing where it plunges right down in pitch and timbre at the end too, for a different kind of emphasis. I love welsh voices.
I just heard great nana Parry telling me off when I read that (Nana spoke Welsh and a few words of English). If she was alive now, she would be about 140. Thanks.
Reporters. Local. Might not be so easy for them to find jobs. But hopefully new media skills will help.
Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#118This kind of behavior (promoted by HR/Legal) needs to stop. Period. It is not about firing people by conference, phone or whatever. It is about the thanklessness and the attitude that sucks. Does it really hurt to genuinely feel and say "sorry we cannot keep you any longer. Hope you understand". No one is going to sit and whine about being laid-off but the manner of layoffs (in america at least) is getting shameful,…
Its not Capitalism, its Lawyerism. The sad fact that you can get sued for being something other than a robot is horrible. The HR / Lawyer part of our economy is one heck of an anchor compared to the legitimate wrongful termination and employment discrimination.
What's crazy is that the US is an "at will" employment law. Which means you can get fired (or quit) for any trivial reason at all what so ever (the meaning of 'at will'). The only people with legal recourse are protected classes (ie, minorities). But it would be both improbable and abusive if mass-lafoffs were only legal fodder in this context. Who the heck else is suing and for what? Or is it just the threat of lawsuits (bad pr) and no-fee lawyers (1/3 ransom) that facilitates this as some sort of "greenmail"? What an odd system!
Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I heard it as coldly professional. What, do you think they'd want a hug? I object to your use of "appalling". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7zkd0kRS4
Why do professional and being nice have to be mutually exclusive ? Why do we have to be "coldly professional" and not "morally/humanly professional" ? No one is complaining about layoffs here. What is being complained about is the way companies are treating their employees. I don't expect a handout or a hug and can find my own work if I get fired. But if you fire me the way these guys did, you will surely never be on…
professional = I want to eat you
nice = I want to help you
professional + nice = I want to eat you and help you?
Now that doesn't work at all.
Re: Patch's new owner lays off staff in 1:39 conference call
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least that guy later apologized and didn't actually fire Abel. Edit: I guess he was actually fired.
I didn't see that anywhere, is there a source? Edit: Found one: http://jimromenesko.com/2013/08/13/aols-tim-armstrong-apolog... Edit again: "Tim Armstrong has publicly apologized for the firing of [Abel] since then, but did not offer to reverse the firing or any compensation" source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Armstrong_(executive)
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