Could it be that nobody in their right mind would take a leadership position at this trainwreck of a company (when they can probably find a much better one), so the only ones left are the cowards?

Maybe. But there are way too many companies and leaders like this. They expect two week notice when an employee leaves, but have no problem firing people at 5 pm on Friday via email/text whatever.

there isn't really a good way to lay off remote workers

There's no good way to lay anybody off. But there are worse and better ways. A one-on-one video call is much more respectful and humane than playing a recording.

This guarantees that a large percentage of people are going to learn about it through other employees rather than from their managers though.

Not necessarily. A humane call with, "Please don't discuss this until 4 pm, as I want to tell people personally" would go a long way. And if people do talk about it, you can still have the rest of the discussion, which is not just about revealing facts.

This is equally true for in-person layoffs done as individual meetings, which happen all the time.

True, but they can try to make both the recently laid off and soon-to-be-laid-off employees be too busy to communicate, or they can round up the ones who will be staying so at least they don't pass around the news to those who aren't going to be laid off before they know they're not on the chopping block.

In a remote layoff situation? The whole company would know the moment one person was laid off.

No, in an in-person layoff situation. I was addressing the comment I replied to where it said "This is equally true for in-person layoffs".

I've been in an office during an in-person layoff situation (surprisingly only once during my 15+ year career), and they were definitely taking advantage of it being done in person.

What potential problems could this cause?

Maybe a disgruntled employee takes down your database or copies confidential info onto their personal computer

Your notion is that nobody who has ever been laid off had a idea it was coming? And you want to build your security with that foundation?

No.

In that case I don't think your previous comment makes much sense.

I layed of 7 employees (mandated closure of non-essential business) and we called them each individually over FaceTime to do it.

That's noble, but seven doesn't really scale to "hundreds" especially if you are wanting the news to break more or less uniformly across the group you are laying off.

Father was furloughed along with 900 others.

Every manager called every single worker personally to relay the news, for a general well-being check in, and to answer any questions about UI benefit filing. Each manager has also personally checked in once a week to see how things are going, and to provide updates, and said they will continue to do so for the next 5 weeks they plan to be closed.

... and that's a non-union, publicly traded company.

If a company only has one manager for "hundreds" of employees, this has to be very low on the scale of the ways the company is doing badly for its workers.

The only way is face to face. If you can't do that then you are shit. Video? Really?

I've been an employer for 20 years. They come and go and quite right too. I encourage my troops that if they are looking elsewhere then we'll give them time off for interviews and assistance in how to interview effectively. I really am not joking. If you think you own someone completely then your name is Satan! I just want a decent day of work out of you, when you want to work for me. If you no longer want to work for me then I want to get rid of you as efficiently and as fairly as possible ...

Reminder: The world has a bad case of pandemic. The reason for layoffs is the extreme measures society has been taking to avoid unnecessary face-to-face interactions. One thing that would piss me off more than being fired is catching a disease from the person firing me.

That's an important point. As much as I'd like my manager to look me in the eye as they tell me I'm laid off, I'd be super pissed if they flew me to San Francisco just to lay me off then left me stewing the whole flight home.

...especially right now.

I disagree.

The same rules apply to taking remote workers on.

Slow and gradual onboarding with care and nurture to take them on.

Careful individually planned offboarding to help them transition.

It's hard to do and doesn't positively impact bottom line initially but it avoids resentment in the vertical(market) which is super important for long term growth.

> Careful individually planned offboarding to help them transition.

This doesn't work when you need to make large changes to an org.

I've seen first hand how different styles of this work.

When it's done 'carefully and individually', and keeps happening over days (because that's what it takes) - everyone else in the company starts wondering if they're impacted, and it becomes this slow-moving horror show. Another person gets tapped on the shoulder, called into a room and let go. Meanwhile the business expects things to continue as normal, but it doesn't and even normal meetings become a source of anxiety.

While it's never pleasant to be told you're being let go - at least if you can do it in larger groups and get it over and done with as soon as possible you reduce the level of anxiety and uncertainty.

Not to say that a pre-recorded video, voice mail or text message is the way to go, but still.

I agree. For large layoffs, do it quickly and in one shot. Managers can then follow up with individuals over time if time and schedules allow.

I was really appreciative of the way the first company I worked for handled my departure. Things were changing at the company so I was looking to leave anyway but then they decided to change their structure and I was given a few options in person (lived ~2000 miles from main office) all of which were mutually beneficial from my point of view.

A) stay on and help integrate an external team for up to 16 weeks (reduced hours, freedom to interview and apply elsewhere) B) stay on and wrap up the current sprint and tidy up some documentation for up to 8 weeks C) finish out the week and receive 6 weeks separation pay. All options also allowed me to keep insurance until I found a new position as well as keep my company provided tech. It really made me appreciate the people at the company overall, minus the person who was making the changes (which has since been canned and some of the engineering efforts at the company have stalled which is sad)

How so? I worked at an all remote company. We were remote from the day of founding.

Everyone I hired I hired remotely, without ever meeting in person. In the two instances I had to let people go I did it remotely. The same way I hired them, the same way I’ve had people quit.