Boss Fired An Employee Over Zoom By Reading A Script Out Loud — ‘I Was Planning To Pause Here’
It underlines the unavoidable truth of our working world: We're all human beings, whether businesses want to acknowledge it or not.
Olelole from Getty Images / Canva Pro The process of laying off employees has seemed to become more robotic and impersonal as time has gone on. One young woman's experience is a perfect example, but one that went so poorly that it somehow ended on a higher note than expected.
The boss fired an employee by reading a script and stumbled on nearly every word.
No one seems to be talking about it unless it pertains to the tech or media industries, but people keep getting fired nowadays in what seems like droves. We all likely know someone who's been let go in recent months.
And with this wave of layoffs has come tons of videos in which workers have filmed themselves getting let go, like the now-infamous fiasco that tech worker Brittany Pietsch filmed and posted to social media a few weeks ago.
Jess, a TikToker known as @jesslovesblueberrybagels, posted a video that started out with a similar, and all too familiar, lack of consideration and empathy.
The manager doing the layoff shared that she had a script she needed to read to do the deed. That kind of robotic approach isn't exactly uncommon or unexpected nowadays. But where the conversation ended up definitely was and it underlines both how dehumanizing our working world is and how some people are simply too human to be suited to it.
The layoff was instantly awkward as the HR manager struggled to stick to the script.
"Jessica, I'm really sorry, but I have some tough news," the manager began the Zoom call with Jess. She wasn't surprised by the layoff, and sort of laughed it off, telling the manager, "I've kind of been expecting this since this morning."
In onscreen text, Jess explained her light-hearted approach to all this by writing that she's "an empath" and could see that the manager "seemed so distraught" about having to deliver this news.
That a person would feel compelled to soften the blow for the person firing them is as relatable to many of us as it is dystopian, and her candor and unflappability seemed to throw the HR manager off.
She laughed, then apologized for making it seem like she was laughing at Jess, and then nervously said, "I'm just gonna read through the script just because I don't want you to miss any information."
The layoff then continued in a tone that underlined just how unsuited some of us are to the inhumanity of our working world.
Try as she might, the manager really struggled to stick to the script. "Let me just give you all the information and then I'm sure you have questions I probably can't answer, but I could take them back to HR," the HR rep joked.
It only got more awkward from there. "I need to inform you that your position has been eliminated. I was planning to pause here," the manager said, laughing almost maniacally as Jess joined in because she too was so uncomfortable.
The manager finished the layoff by telling Jess she could apply for any open positions but laughingly acknowledged she probably wasn't interested. That's true. Jess said in her onscreen text that she "hated her job anyway." But still … lol, why would you say that?!
Obviously, the main theme here is how totally impersonal, robotic, and dystopian our working world has become.
But this video also underlines how totally unsuited all too many people are when it comes to actually managing human beings in the way the business world now requires.
The fact this manager was so flustered and that Jess felt she had to soften the blow is absolutely wild. But you can't really blame either of them. Ultimately, these are two human beings, and it SHOULD be this awkward to treat someone this way. They surely won't, but business leaders should take that lesson to heart.
As for Jess, she seems to have taken it all in stride. She posted another video saying the biggest thing she'll miss about her job is her work laptop because of how easy it was to plug her makeup mirror into it — a hilariously human reaction. She clearly hasn't let her job dull her shine, so she's already won half the battle.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.