At Daily Voice, the worst layoffs EVER?
The hyper-local news website network issued an internal memo on Friday touting good news to come. On Monday, heads rolled and some offices were shuttered.
Imagine you’re sitting at your desk at work on a Friday afternoon. You’re shocked to receive an email stating that the company’s CEO is resigning, but the chairman sends a reassuring follow-up email stating that some positive retooling is coming.
Then, on Monday, you and a lot of the other people in your office are laid off—with no severance pay.
It sounds outlandish, but that’s exactly what happened to employees at Daily Voice, a network of hyper-local news websites in the Northeastern United States. According to Gawker, employees were told Monday the company would shutter 11 bureaus in Massachusetts. Many of the most experienced employees in its Connecticut and New York offices received layoff notices. Those sites will continue running with smaller staffs.
An employee told Gawker that employees were informed of individual meetings that ended up being termination appointments.
Bait-and-switch tactics
The text of Chairman Carll Tucker’s email sent Friday made no indication of the coming carnage. If anything, it had employees wondering about the possibility of new perks.
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