Getting laid off sucks, yet how it happens matters, too.
On Tuesday, Meta told some employees to work from home the next day, ahead of the company’s latest round of layoffs. The move touches on an anxiety familiar to many: not only whether you’ll get cut, but how — and where — you’ll find out.
Six years on from the start of the pandemic, many desk workers remain in hybrid roles. That’s shifted the mechanics of layoffs. What was once typically handled in a conference room or the boss’s office might now unfold on a screen or by email.
As more companies trim their workforces, the question is carrying greater weight. It may not have an easy answer.
“You can have poor execution in person. You can have poor execution remotely,” said Sarah Rodehorst, cofounder and CEO of Onwards HR, which helps companies manage severance and offboarding.
At home vs. IRL
Being at home can allow people to process the news on their own terms — without the risk of crying in front of colleagues. It can also pose fewer security concerns for companies worried about employees lashing out on their way out the actual door.
Making cuts from afar can also make it easier on managers, who don’t have to directly face the person they’re letting go, said Ben Hardy, a clinical professor of organizational behavior at London Business School.
“It’s a bit like divorcing someone through text message,” he said of cutting jobs where one person delivers bad news to many others. It’s too impersonal, Hardy told Business Insider, for an intimate topic. One-on-one communication is better, he said.
Getting laid off in-person might mean trying to hold it together in front of colleagues, yet it can also give people a chance to say goodbye to coworkers and make plans to keep in touch — or gather afterward to commiserate.
Ultimately, what matters most is handling layoffs with empathy and preserving the human element, said Rodehorst.
Calling someone into an office only to lay them off might not always be the best decision, she told Business Insider.
“Remote can actually preserve some privacy,” Rodehorst said.
Of course, layoffs generally feel awful in any case. Some workers have pushed back at cuts via video, saying that it feels impersonal.
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