Companies adopt remote dismissal – 04/10/2023 – Market

Last week, McDonald’s asked corporate employees, who usually work in the office at least three days a week, to do their homework. The plan was to lay off hundreds of employees, according to the DealBook website, and the company preferred to release the news virtually.

McDonald’s isn’t the only company to change the layoff playbook. In January, Google fired thousands of employees via email. And Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, last month announced plans for a year of big cuts in a 2,000-word memo, explaining that the Meta team “wanted more transparency in any restructuring plan.”

As with many workplace norms, how to fire employees is being rewritten in the wake of the pandemic, when companies downsizing often had no choice but to layoffs via Slack, Zoom and email, and often did so careless way. With offices open again and remote working more common, companies now have options — and it’s not necessarily clear what’s best for workers.

“If we had this conversation three years ago, I would have said it’s cruel and unusual punishment,” said Bob Sutton, a Stanford professor and author of “The No Asshole Rule,” about the long-distance firing. “But it’s changed so drastically since the pandemic that I’m confused.”

The thesis of virtual layoffs

Cynthia Huang, senior marketing manager, was fired from a consumer goods company with a hybrid work policy in February. Because she was working remotely that day, she received the news via video call; others were dismissed at the office.

Huang said he preferred to take the call at home. “It was more comfortable than if I had to physically leave the office, getting my stuff with everyone watching me,” she said.

Firing people at home can sometimes be more compassionate in the age of hybrid work, Sutton said. “If you bring people into the office who don’t go there much just to dismiss them, it’s kind of weird,” he said.

The thesis of face-to-face layoffs

When layoffs are done remotely, managers may not fully feel the human cost of their decisions, Sutton said: “It’s a little too easy.” And with a face-to-face notice, employees have the possibility to say goodbye to co-workers.

Kim Scott, a former Google executive and author of “Radical Candor,” suggested that embarrassment or embarrassment could be avoided by planning ahead — for example, having an extra conference room for people to gather, and the option to collect belongings. after hours.

the medium matters

A video call with your manager trumps impersonal email. “It’s very difficult to handle this in person over email,” Scott said.

And experts question the wisdom of Zuckerberg’s pre-layoff announcement.

“You have to be prepared at the same time to talk to people about the process they’re going to go through and what they’re going to be offered if their jobs are in jeopardy,” said Sandra Sucher, a professor at Harvard Business School. “Because if you don’t do all the parts at the same time, you’re just introducing a ton of uncertainty into your organization.”

Scott advises a narrow window between announcing and executing layoffs. “It makes everyone nervous,” she said of Zuckerberg’s approach.

But even the most polite version of dumping someone is still painful. “It didn’t feel like there was that human touch, you know?” Huang said of his experience. “But I don’t think it was necessarily because it was virtual versus in-person. I think it’s just the nature of a layoff.”

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves