The New Corporate Playbook for How to Do a Layoff

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Alex Ossola (0:32)

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Alex Ossola (0:50)

And does Amazon laying people off via text and email signal a new approach to job cuts? It's Monday, November 17th. I'm Alex Ossola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that moved the world today. Sinclair, one of the country's largest owners of local TV stations, says it has built a roughly 8% stake in local TV broadcaster EW Scripps to help it buy the company. Sinclair says it's discussed a deal with Scripps, but there's no agreement yet.

We're in a moment when employers are laying off thousands of workers. And how they're doing it keeps evolving. During the pandemic, it was Zoom calls. Then it was surprise calendar invites to HR meetings. Now many companies are trying to make layoffs more efficient, and they tend to involve a lot less FaceTime. When Amazon started laying off some 14,000 employees last month, they received a text to check their emails, which then informed them they'd lost their job. Some Southwest Airlines employees learned they lost their jobs while at home via a scripted video call that was in listen-only mode, not letting them respond. For more on how layoffs keep changing and why, I'm joined now by Chip Cutter, who covers workplace issues for The Journal. Chip, why are companies shifting to doing layoffs this way?

Chip Cutter (2:09)

Well, HR people keep trying to make this more efficient. When you're trying to let go, in some cases, thousands of workers, how do you do this all in a really short period of time? And so, that's why you've seen many go to this approach, where you are told via text, you are told via email, everybody learns their fate at once. And in many cases, companies want to minimize some of the in-office emotions. They don't want people to be coming from conference rooms, crying, and having their colleagues embracing them. And it's easier to do that when you're at home, when everybody is told at once. But then, a lot of people would argue, this feels a little heartless, this feels tough on workers, where you learn just in the middle of the night, and in some cases, when you look at your phone, that you no longer have a job.

Alex Ossola (2:53)

Let's talk about one recent example from Conde Nast. The company said it would move its Teen Vogue publication under vogue.com and let some employees go. After that, a group of workers confronted an HR executive, Stan Duncan, outside his office to ask for an explanation. Video of the encounter from media publication The Wrap was pretty quickly all over the internet.

Chip Cutter (3:14)

We would appreciate if you would go back to the workplace.

Jared Diamond (3:17)

Is there a place that you would be able to speak to us?

Chip Cutter (3:19)

Not today.

Jared Diamond (3:20)

We have other things going on. Do you think we're not worth speaking to, Stan? Those are your words, not mine.

Alex Ossola (3:25)

Condé Nast later fired four participants involved in the in-office protest and suspended others. And this example just shows us layoffs can be unpredictable. There can be real pushback.

Chip Cutter (3:35)

The firings of these workers after the in-office protest then led to their own protest in a rally outside of Condé Nast's headquarters in Lower Manhattan last week. That brought the New York Attorney General, Leticia James, to the rally. She said that she was going to take Condé Nast to court. Now, Condé Nast has said that the terminations were lawful and based on clear violations of company policy. They'll say that they'll respond to the Attorney General if she has concerns. But I think a lot of HR people who are doing these layoffs have watched what has happened at Condé Nast and said, ooh, we do not want that to happen to us.