Rod HiltonJan 25, 2023

"A third laid-off Google employee told Insider that a team midway through an off-site at the Chicago office discovered that two of their team members had been laid off when they were unable to badge into the office with the rest of the group."

Companies act like this to people and then folks get offended that employees don't feel like giving their employers 2-weeks notice and putting themselves at risk anymore.

https://boingboing.net/2023/01/25/some-google-employees-found-they-were-laid-off-only-when-their-badge-didnt-let-them-into-the-office-inhuman.html

Some Google employees found they were laid off only when their badge didn't let them into the office: "Inhuman" | Boing Boing

Around 12,000 — or 6% — of Google employees were laid on Friday, but not everyone saw the “abrupt and impersonal” email before commuting to work. And so some employees who missed the me…

Boing Boing
Show threadJWSGeek (Moving: Universeodon)Jan 25, 2023

@rodhilton companies act like this because anybody given two weeks notice on an unexpected layoff (especially after a recent good review / promotion) may get vindictive and sabotage things on their way out.

The corporate paranoia (justified because of a few examples) is such that they simply won't give soon-to-be-ex- workers a chance to do that.

It really sucks where we are, but basically corporations and workers really just don't and can't trust each other anymore.

Show threadPatty Kimura
@jwsgeek @rodhilton Back in the olden times, you looked someone in the face as you laid them off, especially layoffs not for cause. You may have had to wait while they got their personal items, and they may have cried or cursed you, but you empathized and took it. Because the fired person is shaken, humiliated, angry, and frightened. It's the worst thing to be required to do, but it's what used to be done because it's the least you can do.Shutting off badges from afar is dishonorable cowardice.
Jan 26, 2023 at 2:12amWeb
Show threadJWSGeek (Moving: Universeodon)Jan 26, 2023

@pattykimura @rodhilton not saying you're wrong, conceptually/emotionally.

Just saying this is where we are, esp with scattered multi-national corporations.

I'm in the DC area. My boss is in Toronto, his boss in the midwest, and her boss is in Austin. My lead partner is in the Bay Area, California, my team is either Toronto, or two separate (1000 mile apart) cities in India.

Who's to 'look me in the face'?

This is reality in the large corps now (and why going to the office is pointless).

Show threadPatty KimuraJan 26, 2023
@jwsgeek @rodhilton HR departments and managers exist for a reason. You can term someone by a means that involve individual contact, if you ever valued their work that contributed to your product. Everyone has a salaried manager, even remotely. Being someone's leader sometimes requires that leader to do the hard stuff that no one with a heart wants to do. To delegate termination by deactivating a magnetic card is cowardice.