Achi news desk-
When Canada Goose employees received an email on Monday, March 25, telling them not to come into the office the following day, they feared the worst.
The last time they received a directive like this was in August and it preceded a round of redundancies.
This time there were also layoffs, but with one key difference: people were notified of their layoff by the luxury parka maker via email.
The decision to proceed with such terminations was described as “inhumane,” and “disheartening” by three former employees who spoke to Global News and shared some of the email communications they received on condition of anonymity.
Global is protecting their identity as they fear repercussions for speaking to the media and worry it could damage their future employment prospects.
“Being terminated after years of being successful at your job is traumatic,” one laid-off worker told Global News. “It’s done through emails and you really feel like you’re just a number and you didn’t care.”
In a statement to Global News on Thursday, Canada Goose’s chief human resources officer, Jess Johannson, said: “Decisions like this are heartbreaking – we understand the human impact they have, and we know there is no a perfect way to share this kind of news.”
He went on to say, “our focus was to ensure that our team members were treated with respect and dignity and given the grace to process the news on their own time.”
On March 26, Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss announced “sad news” in a LinkedIn post: the company was laying off 17 percent of its global corporate workforce. He said the job cuts better position the company for scaling and will help the Toronto-based business focus on efficiency and brand, design and operational initiatives.
Shortly after 9 am that day, employees received two emails: one from Reiss stating the restructuring plans; another from Canada Goose Human Resources included termination notices for those being laid off.
“I was completely shocked and I was really seeing my eyes,” said one former employee.
Johannson notes that all affected employees were invited to schedule a virtual meeting with a “Human Resources Business Partner.” He says that while some employees chose to schedule those right away, others chose to talk later.
Canada Goose said the meeting could happen “as soon as they do [the former employee] want.”
Two of the former employees say putting the onus on people who had just received termination notices to schedule a follow-up appointment with HR was “traumatic.”
Financial news and insights
delivered to your email every Saturday.
One of them claimed they “didn’t get human contact for hours after warning” and that human resources “didn’t proactively reach out.”
When asked about these specific allegations, Canada Goose referred to its earlier statement from Johannson who said the focus was to “make sure our team members are treated with respect and dignity and have time to process the news on their their own time” and that this affected employees being able to arrange a meeting “at a time that worked best for the employee.”
The company reiterated: “We know there is no perfect way to share this type of news” and “some employees chose to schedule those [meetings] immediately, while others appreciate the opportunity to talk later.”
The former employee said it was “disheartening because I think they deserve a little more sympathy, empathy and a human conversation rather than electronic communication.”
All three expressed disappointment with Canada Goose’s email strategy. One said they were “extremely disappointed that a Canadian icon would follow this path.”
One of the restructuring casualties is a long-time employee who says he has dedicated himself to building the legendary brand. They say the email-first dismissal approach “didn’t fit” with the company’s wholesome image.
“Canada Goose’s culture has always prided itself on treating people fairly, with as much respect as possible.”
Global News asked Canada Goose about these claims, but the company did not directly address them in its response.
Email notifications are legal, but a ‘bad idea’: lawyer
With the rise of remote work, email pink slips are becoming increasingly common, according to labor and employment lawyer Lior Samfiru, national co-managing partner of Toronto-based Samfiru Tumarkin LLP. Before the pandemic he says examples of it were rare; he had dealt with two such cases in two decades.
Samfiru says email layoff notices are not illegal, but advises against them because they leave too much to chance.
He says they are a “bad idea” because employers have a duty to notify employees of their termination in a timely manner but a digital-first email process means some communication can slip through the cracks , went unopened because it failed, wasn’t delivered or ended up in a spam folder.
“The timing of when someone received that termination notice may be very important,” Samfiru told Global News on Thursday.
Best layoff practices allow laid-off employees to ask questions, without burdening them with next steps while they’re in shock over losing their job. When that doesn’t happen, frustrated employees often seek legal advice.
In fact, he tells Global News that about a dozen former Canada Goose employees have reached out to his law firm with questions.
“When an employee terminates by email, it potentially exposes them to legal action because they are basically driving their employees to a lawyer,” Samfiru said.
‘Distressing’ layoffs email: HR Expert
Andrew Monkhouse, adjunct professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall School of Law, has expertise in the legalities of letting go as well as HR practice. He tells Global News that traditionally, people were told in person that they were being let go but the pandemic has upended the way we work and the way terminations are conducted, using trends such as email redundancies.
“It’s becoming more common because more people are working from home, including HR staff,” he said Thursday. Cost cutting and the need to notify many people of terminations, while using the least possible number of resources, are also factors.
Monkhouse says the best practice is still to let an employee know they’ve been made redundant through direct one-to-one communication, whether that’s in person or remotely and follow up with written correspondence. Like Samfiru, he also advises against using email as a first method of contact.
“People expect that there is a certain level of dignity in being set free,” he said. “Receiving an email informing you that you have been terminated can be quite distressing.”
In terms of etiquette, Samfiru warns that an email approach could further exacerbate an already stressful situation.
“That employee can leave employment with a bad taste in their mouth and bad feelings towards that employer,” he said.
Samfiru says the remote work trend is no excuse to avoid courtesy in the workplace.
“We still have the ability, the technology, the means and the resources to arrange for the worker to meet the person who is letting them go, to have their questions answered, to be treated with respect .”
Ad blocking test (Why?)
Source link
Related
