This is how the CEOs package the resignations
11,000 here, 12,000 there – large tech companies such as Meta, Google, Microsoft or Amazon have had to lay off many employees in recent months. A total of almost 150,000 jobs are said to have been lost in this area alone on the US west coast – between Seattle and Silicon Valley.
After the scandals of the past few years, when some tech CEOs fired employees in group zoom calls, the corporate leaders have apparently learned something new. This shows an analysis of 48 internal letters at US tech firms created by The Washington Post.
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These are not specifically individual letters of termination, but rather memos in which all employees were informed about the mass layoffs. Accordingly, all memos, no matter how long they are, show striking similarities.
Those responsible take some of the blame on themselves, but mainly see it on the outside. For example in the bad economic situation. Still, the CEOs are trying to spread some hope at the end. And you avoid the word dismissal.
In addition, many of the letters attempted to adopt a family tone. The employees were referred to as Googlers or Zoomies, which is supposed to give those who have been laid off the feeling that they will still be part of the family afterwards.
Some tech companies like Salesforce or Udemy went even further, calling for those who had to leave the company to be “kept in their hearts” or shown “compassion and love”.
In addition, more than half of the company bosses apologized for the job cuts. According to observers, this shows that at the management level it is now probably less about caring for one’s own ego than the standard writes.
Whether the warm words are really meant seriously in any case can at least be doubted. After all, the CEOs know what headwinds they might otherwise face from the remaining employees.
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Would you like a negative example? Pagerduty CEO Jennifer Tejada declined to apologize in her resignation announcement. Instead, there was self-praise and promotions – in addition to the seven percent job cuts.
A few days of outrage – internally and externally – later, Tejada had to admit in another broadcast that she should have “worried more about my tone of voice”. And I’m sorry”.
