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Guy I knew got laid off from Vayner. They wouldn’t let anyone pack up but rather mailed their stuff to their apartments. They opened the boxes to find a free copy of one of Gary Vee’s “crush it” books.
I got laid off from a place 8 years ago. While I was getting the talk, they had someone pack up my office for me.
Got called to a meeting on the floor where HR sat. My CD met me at the door told them my name and then left. My wife was 6 month’s pregnant at the time. I pulled up a picture of her and made it my screen saver and turned it facing the powers that be as they gave their canned speech
Same. 4 weeks after my wife gave birth.
Oh ... and that time ADweek told us first
Wait, what?????
They left a copy of the lay-off names on the printer.
Many years ago, a manager was running behind on their layoffs, so there was a line of people going down the hall outside the manager’s office, waiting their turn to be let go. Also brutal.
When ya gotta get them layoffs done, but also need your full hour for lunch to *decompress*
At my previous company, they laid off someone on April Fools day. It was a small enough company with a goofy enough CD that the poor girl thought it was a joke.
When the “safe” staffers were corralled into a tiny glass conference room while we watched five of our former colleagues pack up their desks in the open
Someone on her honeymoon ... yeah that!
Someone came back to the US from burying their father in another country that was in the middle of a war, got laid off the next day. So cold.
The morning after the big happy agency Christmas party.
Last hoorah. I’ve seen that one before.
Had a company put 50% of the creative department on performance review. Then 3 weeks later “fired” all those people for not being “good” at their job. Agency didn’t have to pay severance or anything and could claim to not have layoffs...because the employees were fired instead. Good people out there
Bless you SCW1.
This guy getting laid off in the middle of a geico shoot: https://www.adweek.com/agencyspy/the-twitter-story-of-how-a-writer-was-laid-off-in-the-middle-of-a-geico-shoot/161864/
An “all hands” meeting was called, but only half the agency was there. The other half had snuck out to awkwardly wait for the rest of us to pack up and go. Small agency that got much smaller after that day.
Dang
All staff meeting: "things are going great with the client! -cough cough- we'll be doing less production in Q1. "
When my team got back to their desks, -ping- noise of calendar invites starts coming in for the whole production department.
We got walked into a room and sacked in 10 minute intervals. The whole department was killed. Still remember one woman bawling here eyes out.
When the VP fired the whole agency from another city, and we were on a speakerphone in a conference room. After this we bought vodka and weed.
@CD Op, the main office was in another city! So they closed our office for good, took our accounts and three months later they lost all of them!
Then there was the time the Carat Chief People officer sent lay-off documents to the entire distribution list in error:
https://www.wired.com/2008/09/carat-employee/
I was at a global agency that accidentally sent Cobra packages to people over the Xmas break. 3 weeks before they were scheduled to be laid off. 🤦♂️
I’m actually surprised that didn’t happen at my last agency, they managed to screw up any and all paperwork
Execution style? Yikes.
I was laid off after taking leave to be with my dying mother. She died a month later. My partner was visiting family in Asia and they had to fire her over email.
No. Under no circumstances full stop 🛑 NO
People who were safe were quietly asked to walk across the street to a basketball court at a park, not knowing what was going on... The unlucky crew was let go and cleaned out their desks while we got text messages from them about what was happening...
An entire brand team (about 40 people) got called into the all-glass conference room and canned at the same time. Brutal.
That kind of thinking makes no sense to me. Like, keep your strongest people, no matter what they are currently working on. Redistribute clients.