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While it’s bad enough that a lot of people lost their jobs yesterday in the latest round of Aol’s effort to become viable as a company again, apparently they went about it in a way that left many with a bitter taste.
BusinessInsider spoke to an insider and published this account of the firings.
Managers had no clue if anyone on their teams were getting laid off. They were called into a separate meeting as a diversion, and then those being laid off were called into another and axed in a big group setting.
They pulled 20-30 people into a conference room and told them they “Don’t have roles at aol anymore.” [Severance is] 1 week for every year worked.
It’s really quite appalling.Managers came back after their meeting to find out people on their teams were gone.
Managers weren’t told beforehand or asked who on their team should go if necessary. And nobody knows how the hell they picked who got laid off, as some of them were absolute top performers in some cases 50-75% of some of the most successful teams/sites AOL has.
Honestly, it’s no fun to report on these layoffs. I think it is necessary though to let people know how an organization is run and if this account is accurate it appears that Aol is a bit of a train wreck.
Of course, that train has some happy new passengers who are resting their heads on pillows of cash like Arianna Huffington and Michael Arrington but they earned their keep.
What’s troubling is that they have tied their fate to an organization that seems to be in constant disarray. When it makes news it rarely has a positive spin to it and one has to think that morale is pretty low by this point.
It’s sad to hear about people losing their jobs but the way this company appears to be running they may find themselves looking back and thanking Aol in the future.
