The Unemployed Life
Laid Off? That’s Only the First Insult
It’s bad enough they take away your job, your income, and your subsidized lunch. Some companies have been handling their layoffs so ineptly, it’s offensive. And there are other insults that just come with the territory. Some examples:
1. One toymaker (toymaker!) wouldn’t let employees return to their offices after being laid off — not even to get their coats. Human resources staffers retrieved bags and jackets, and said the rest would be packed up and shipped.
2. An editor received increasingly urgent email reminders to change her system password, which was set to expire the day after her termination date.
3. While it might seem like a nice concession to let people stay at their jobs for additional weeks before leaving, it also means suffering the awkward, averted gaze of co-workers who didn’t lose their jobs. Not that we would know.
4. “But you can still write for us” — for free — one media employee was told.
5. The federal tax on severance checks — viewed by the I.R.S. as supplemental wages, the withholding tax is higher than on your regular paychecks.
6. Not only did one major tech company lay off staff, its executives then actively prevented those very same workers from getting jobs at a competitor.
7. We might all be seeking advice for creative money management, but one employer actually had the gall to distribute the book 101 Ways to Save Money to employees on their way out.
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3 comments for “Laid Off? That’s Only the First Insult”
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I’ve got another one:
A certain professional services company here in Portland – I can’t one day last week. All the employees knew about, where buzzing about it, and yet, the powers that be decided to wait until 3 p.m. on layoff day to inform workers who were losing their jobs – nothing like dragging out the agony.
Michelle Rafter
Great blog! I think I’m the original source for you on #4 — that happened to my friend, someone who worked for one of the Zell papers. Just to add to the story, they called her at home a few days after letting her go and made her that “offer.”
I’ve been hearing from Circuit City ex-employees about their experiences after being laid off (http://www.deadcompanyclub.com/2009/05/04/you-have-it-bad/). Their stories would make you shiver even if they were fiction – and they’re not.