FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- 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.
"If I put myself in their shoes, I'd say, 'Didn't they have a few minutes to tell me?'" D'Souza said.
Laid-off workers got one to three weeks pay for each year of service, up to 16 weeks for hourly employees and 36 weeks for those with base bay of at least $90,000, the company said.
Source: Associated Press
Umm.... I'm pretty speechless on this one. Layoffs are hard enough on the employees - I can't imagine how anyone came around to making the decision that doing it via email would be a good idea. :(
I've roped off some time later today to dig a little and find out what type of positions were laid off and to contact RadioShack to see if they're providing any assistance with employees that have been affected. Perhaps I'll get lucky and be able to help place some of them in titles I've got available in that area of the country.
This was something I did with another large company a few years back and it was a nice little success story. The transition was smooth for those we were able to pick up, and those that we could not appreciated our efforts to help.
