‘Tell me I’m fired after the beep’
July 10, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter - Tech
No manager or HR pro likes to deliver bad news. But it’s still better than the fallout when no one owns up to the task.
London law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer — the fourth largest firm in the world — recently had to lay off 14 attorneys.
That’s nothing new — like any other business, many law offices have had to make cutbacks. What sets Freshfields apart is the way it did the deed.
Normally, you’d expect the firm’s partners to deliver the news to the unlucky 14. But Freshfields’ head honchos delegated the dirty work to the company’s HR department.
But apparently the HR staffers weren’t up to the task either. So instead of arranging meetings, they made phone calls. And in a few cases where the attorneys didn’t pick up, they left messages with details of the layoff.
News about job loss is obviously hard to take, but hearing it on your answering machine certainly doesn’t help. One of Freshfields’ ex-employees called the partners “gutless” and said HR’s strategy “obviously made people feel incredibly under-valued,” the UK’s Daily Mail reports.
The firm’s defense: It was just the quickest and most efficient way to spread the word. A company spokesperson said the method wasn’t ideal, but “we were trying to get the information out as soon as possible.”
Experts recommend always delivering bad news in person. Not only is it simply the right thing to do, but how the termination process is carried out can affect whether or not someone’s angry enough to take an ex-employer to court.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
That is crazy! I work in HR and we recently had to let go of 14 people at one time. Our managers along with an HR rep conducted face-to-face meeting. Eveything was done within a 1-1/2 hours. That included discussion on severance and walking them to the door. Each was offered the opportunity to gather their belongings at the time, or to come back after 5 so they wouldn’t have to see anyone else. Everyone of those terminated accepted the decision as part of doing business in this economy and asked if they would be considered for another position if one were to open up. Everyone of them was told yes and asked to continue to check our website for openings they might be interested in. On a side note, ONE person was out sick and ONE was on their way back from a weekend trip (air traffic issues). Each had their termination conversation on the phone – with their manager and an HR Staffer – and given an apology for the meeting not being face-to-face. Both thanked the mgrs for not waiting until they came in the next day – just to send them home.
BUT NEVER would we have left a message on their answering machine! That is tacky.
July 14th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Now this is an all time low – leaving a voice mail? Talk about treating these employees (people) with disrespect is inconsiderate and opening the door for trouble down the road.
Sounds to me like the HR department staff was having a pitty party over having to do the deed instead of looking at how they could support these employees. It makes you wonder just how much thought was put into the exiting process.
Depending on the departments they worked for, it’s a matter of scheduling a mandatory meeting at different times of the same day and addressing it head on. There just isn’t an easy way to do this, but you can show compassion and provide information so they know why it happened and what their options are with pay, benefits & services for their outplacement.
If you are an HR professional, you have to be able to play many roles – terminating an employee is the most difficult task of all. It’s a balancing act of delivering the information with care but always telling yourself this had to be because it’s a business decision and being supportive for the employee and for the company.
The HR Excecutive for this particular company needed to step up to the plate and set a better example. Shame on him/her for not taking an undesireable task and turning it into a more positive situation – HR allowed the fear of the executive staff affect their good judgement or lack of in this case.
July 15th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Reinforces some of the stereotypes of attorneys, doesn’t it? I can’t imagine anyone being that callous…except when the people at Radio Shack were terminated last year by e-mail…remember that? These people give HR a very bad name!
July 15th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
The day my daughter was born, my husband’s firm let 100 salaried employees go. He was one of them. He called in to work at 10:00 to tell them why he was late getting to work and he was told not to bother coming in. His name was on the terminated list that had been posted! Nice.
July 16th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Wow, I can’t imagine terminating an employee by voice mail! As Jeanette said, it reinforces some of the stereotypes of attorney’s. Apparently they will eat their own after all. lol Sorry…couldn’t resist.
January 19th, 2010 at 10:57 am
It reinforces my belief in England’s poor labor practices!!!