FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — RadioShack Corp. notifiedabout 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, saidhe 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.
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.
Posted originally:
09/02/2006
