Sam Parr  ⚪️

- seems normal to lay people off via zoom if you can't come to the office - deactivating accounts while firing people is also normal and acceptable

Would you treat your staff this way?

Yes. I’ve laid off people via zoom and deactivate their accounts during. It’s common practice.

The via zoom bit is much less notable than the in two minutes bit and the via script read off by your comms person bit

(and tbh, while i can see how account deactivation is necessary in certain scenarios, from my experience it's far from normal in media and I'm kinda surprised you'd do it at a news business. People can't even email farewells etc?)

When I fire people I say: "Unfortunately, you're let go today. If you want, we can talk about why. If not, we can end this convo right now because I know it's emotional and you want time and we can talk later." Most people walk out.

And when I let people go, I have a pretty strict script. You can get sued easily for saying dumb shit, even if it feels helpful in the moment. The fact is: firing sucks. And swiftly doing it, getting papers signed, then talking another time is best for many.