Getting the Sack from Radio Shack

The Associated Press today reported that RadioShack just laid off 400 employees, which is one thing. But how they notified the unlucky employees is something else...by email!

RadioShack fires employees by e-mail
Associated Press

FORT WORTH — RadioShack Corp. notified about 400 workers by e-mail that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned job cuts.

Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages Tuesday morning saying: "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated."

Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.

Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, said he had never heard of such a large number of terminated employees being notified electronically. He said it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees.

I'm not sure which is worse, but reading this story took me back to my first job out of university when my employer made a similar (albeit on a much smaller scale) brilliantly classy move. It was an engineering company and we were working on a job site in the back woods of Tennessee. My co-worker had been with the company for a few months and the job in Tennessee meant he was spending 3 out of every 4 weeks away from his wife and 1-year old son. What's more, he was working the night shift.

So just imagine the joy he must have felt when he arrived on the job site at 7:00 p.m. for a 12-hour shift, having slept terribly during the day (neither one of us could ever really adjust to nights), only to find a terse, 3-line fax from our boss telling him his services were no longer required.

Given how much attention these days is paid to employee morale and productivity, it's hard to imagine companies or individuals being so tactless, even if it is letting someone go. I guess the explanation could be..."what are they going to do? quit?"