As videos of layoff experiences flood TikTok, American companies are looking for guidance on navigating layoffs without provoking social media fury.
With candid videos that dissect every detail, from CEOs’ apology notes to awkwardly timed announcements, companies, especially smaller tech companies, are trying to avoid the fallout of a public relations disaster. Bloomberg reported.
Related: Woman Goes Viral After Recording Her Disastrous Call With HR After Being Let Go: ‘They Tried To Gaslight You’
Onwards HR, a startup that specializes in seamlessly managing layoffs, including automating severance pay and promoting collaboration between HR, legal and finance units, has seen its customer base increase 300% in the past year. “They say, can you tell us how to do it so this doesn’t happen to us?” Sarah Rodehorst, co-founder and CEO of Onwards HR, told the outlet. “With social media, everyone is watching.”
And with nearly 25,000 tech workers laid off in the first few weeks of 2024 alone, according to NPR, there’s no shortage of content. In January, Brittany Pietsch went viral on the platform after her nine-minute recording of her getting fired from cybersecurity and network security company Cloudflare received more than 2 million views.
@brittanypeachhh Creator’s original repost: Brittany Peach Cloudflare firing. When you know you’re about to get fired you film the whole thing 🙂 this was traumatizing honestly lmao #cloudflare #techlayoffs #tech #layoff ♬ original sound – Brittany Pietsch
When HR gave a vague reason for his firing, Pietsch reacted by saying, “I disagree that I didn’t meet performance expectations. I really need an answer and an explanation.” Social media users praised Pietch’s composure in the face of “gaslighting” and with “so little” notice.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, who wrote about the social media platform X that in Pietsch’s time the company fired about 40 of 1,500 workers, he admitted that the company doesn’t always “hire perfectly.”
The video about the firing of digital media manager Joni Bonnemort, posted on TikTok last year, racked up 1.4 million views, with commenters complaining that she received “no compensation” and that companies required advance notice of two weeks while they could “fire you that day”.
@joni_ray Done and done. It was fun. Unemployment, I’m coming. Currently. #laidoff #laidofftiktok #corporatetiktok #corporatelayoffs #corporateamerica #capitalism #jobloss #recession2023 ♬ original sound – Joni Bonnemort
Related: Tech CEOs Are Responsible for Mass Layoffs: Analysis | Entrepreneur
Of course, how a company deals with layoffs can have a significant impact on its reputation.
“You don’t want the people you just fired to go splash on Glassdoor or somewhere else because of how horrible you are,” Eric McNulty, associate director of Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, told CNBC, noting that layoffs badly managed can also be detrimental to a company’s “alumni network” and future hiring pool.
Leaders facing layoffs should be direct and transparent, communicate with empathy, provide extensive detail and keep remaining workers’ concerns in mind, the outlet reported.