When major auto companies began instituting massive layoffs across the country this month, those affected were invariably “walked out” – that is, provided with a box in which to place their belongings, then escorted from the premises as dozens of their former colleagues pretended not to see what was happening.
Since the process has been increasingly utilized over the past 15 years, however, it’s no longer as humiating as it once was. Thus, many businesses have amended their termination policies to ensure the humilation factor remains.
“Ten years ago getting walked out was the most humiliating fate imaginable,” says Dr. Richard Mistele, president of the Business Institutions, LLC. “But now it’s so routine that companies have to step it up to ensure those laid off are properly disgraced.”
Some examples of ecenlth- revised termination procedures:
- The Draxon Group of Asthtabula, Ohio issues boxes with faulty bottoms, so the staffer’s belongings spill on the floor and he or she has to bend over to pick them up as former co-workers watch.
- Pittsin of Carlsbad, California utilizes miniature beagles to bark, snarl and nip at the heels of terminees as they depart.
- Newark, New Jersey’s Cabbitation tells employees it has hired an Uber to take them home – and then doesn’t, so the fired staffer to stand outside the office for hours, holding their office plant
- At St. Louis-based Carson-Palmer, employees are informed of their firings via personalized singing telegrams.
- In Albany, New York, Millings & Hall, Inc. ensures that as staffers exit the building for the final time, the door immediately swings closed and hits them in the posterior.
