Write about what you know is an axiom authors and would-be writers hear often. Despite a recovering economy, it’s a sad fact that many Americans know more than they’d like about terminations and layoffs, particularly in the tech sector. Their experience is firsthand. 

Every layoff and termination victim has a story. Fairly or not, few of those narratives reflect well on employers. As such, how layoffs and terminations are processed should concern communicators, whose job includes maintaining corporate reputation. Moreover, in some companies PR pros double as HR staff.

The most egregious termination example occurred pre-holiday in Dec. 2021 when Vishal Garg, CEO of real estate firm better.com, invited 900 employees to a Zoom meeting. Upon starting the meeting Garg somewhat cavalierly and with little empathy told them: "If you're on this call, you're part of the unlucky group being laid off … your employment here is terminated. Effective immediately."  

Things got worse for the reputations of Garg and his firm when reports emerged that he’d described some employees as criminals, dummies and underachievers. Even after Garg left his post temporarily for “training” and “reflection,” the 900 story followed him, sullying his and better’s reputation. Indeed, even a year later unrelated headlines about better.com mentioned the 900 firings. Even the awful debut of Garg’s IPO last summer reminded readers of the 900. 

Lemon’s Departure

CNN anchor Don Lemon’s story became a headline the April day in 2023 when the cable news network fired him. Besides Lemon’s celebrity, the story gained coverage because it fit into a neat, bi-partisan news package. Not many hours after Lemon was terminated, his onetime rival, Fox News star Tucker Carlson, also was gone. 

Lemon’s account was a reputation ding for CNN, at least for those who believed his story. In short, Lemon claimed no senior person from CNN contacted him directly to inform him of his firing. Instead, CNN allegedly called Lemon’s agent with the news. CNN disputed Lemon’s version of things. 

Moreover, accounts claim Lemon’s colleagues from “CNN Morning” weren’t informed of the news promptly, making for awkward live TV the next day. The apparently shabby way CNN and new chief Chris Licht treated the 17-year company veteran and one of the network’s stars added to the its downward spiral internally and externally. Not long after Lemon, Licht also was out. 

Show Don’t Tell

Show don’t tell is another phrase communicators know well. A variation on that: seeing is believing. Until recently, when it came to botched terminations and layoffs, the best example of show don’t tell was Garg. Not unexpectedly, a former employee recorded the infamous Zoom meeting and posted it. The video made a compelling story even more memorable.

Other than Garg, we’ve seen few layoffs or firings. There are theatricals, including most of the 2009 movie “Up in the Air” (Isn’t it great how it’s billed as “comedy/romance”? Come on, it’s a feel-good film about laying off people). And 2 scenes from “Mad Men,” featuring Burt Peterson getting fired, and years later fired again (4:04 on the linked video). And finally, what looks to be an awful, Garg-inspired firing from HBO’s “Succession.” 

The Pietsch Video: An Inflection Point?

Until now, with the exception of Garg, we were told about poorly handled layoffs and terminations, instead of seeing them. That was until last week when Brittany Pietsch, 27, filmed herself getting terminated. A sales rep for a Cloudflare, a software and cyber company, Pietsch thought her exit was possible since several colleagues were fired earlier. 

Her 9-minute video seems to illustrate miscommunication and poor management. During the firing call, Cloudflare HR said Pietsch didn’t fulfill its metrics. Yet Pietsch claims her manager gave her positive evaluations several times. (Had Pietsch recorded those encounters or received written confirmation she might have a grievance.)

It’s best if you watch several minutes if not the entirety of this extraordinary video before continuing with this essay. 

Now that you’ve seen Pietsch’s video, you realize it, or a variation, will run in classrooms and HR and PR training programs for years. 

Takeaways from Pietsch’s Video 

The Obvious: For years, communicators knew anything said or written internally could go external. The digital age makes things worse (or prompts accountability). It’s easy to create videos and audio recordings. And the internet offers numerous opportunities to post material. 

As such, current or former employees’ narratives, memos and, as we’ve seen, videos, can make their way to the public square. (The sound you hear is a PR pro groaning in agony.) 

Clarity: Among the top goals in a layoff or a firing is clarity. This requires transparency from the organization and employee. As we saw, Cloudflare failed miserably on that score, perhaps even before Pietsch was fired. 

Recall Pietsch admitted not closing sales during her brief tenure, though she claims her manager indicated repeatedly she was doing “well.” 

However, Dom, one of the Cloudflare HR employees in the video, began the call with verbiage about Cloudflare performance metrics showing Pietsch hadn’t done well and so was being fired. Pietsch’s manager wasn’t on the call (perhaps intentionally) and could not respond. As such, the situation was confusing from the start.

Pietsch challenged Dom’s narrative. She claimed her manager and she didn’t know about Cloudflare’s metrics. Eventually Pietsch asked if the metrics were “bullshit” the company used to cover itself because it hired too many salespeople. I’d rather get a straight story, she said. 

Yet Dom and Ruthie, the other Cloudflare HR person, were unable or unwilling to provide detail about metrics the company used or why Pietsch’s manager told her she was doing well. Ruthie said “this [call] is not the time” to discuss metrics. In a fine example of corporate doubletalk, Ruthie said she’d follow up, but also that she’d “make no promises.”

All this leads to the next takeaway. 

No Surprises: Perhaps the worst part of this video is that Pietsch claims she was unaware of her vulnerability, given her manager’s positive assessments. Cloudflare should insist on keeping written accounts of managers’ employee evaluations.  A firing should not surprise an employee. Unfortunately, this is not so with layoffs.

Manager’s Attendance: The jury is out. A manager should share the employee’s good and bad times, right? Maybe not. Perhaps outsourcing firings and layoffs to HR reduces employee embarrassment as the staffer doesn’t have to face her manager. 

On the other hand, maybe it’s better to have a familiar face during a firing, along with an HR professional. 

In Pietsch’s case, having her manager present might have clarified the situation about her performance. Maybe Cloudflare didn’t want that.

Do Your Homework: It’s understandable Pietsch didn’t know Dom and Ruthie. She’d been employed just 4 months. However, some argue that when a veteran employee is let go it seems less excusable for a senior official not to be present (see Don Lemon, above).   

One of the most salient issues with Pietsch was that Dom and Ruthie didn’t seem knowledgeable about her situation. If an employee is fired for cause, then it’s obvious HR staff should fully understand the cause. 

In addition, HR should have records and data to support its case. That’s basic communication and PR. Lacking data or refusing to discuss it gave Pietsch a large opportunity to hammer Dom and Ruthie and produce a viral video. 

Emotional Factor and Heads Held High: The video makes clear a fired employee can become emotional. A laid off employee can, too. It’s clear Pietsch went into shock as the call progressed. 

Accordingly, companies wanting smoother firings and layoffs, and positive reputations, should approach them with humanity. We’re not talking crying, overly apologetic CEOs. 

Instead, recognize emotion is involved and that you’re dealing with a person not a chess piece. Thank the employee, acknowledge their effort. Let them breathe a bit before discussing medical insurance and severance packages. If budgets allow, pay for employment counseling. 

Knowing the reputation implications, PR pros should encourage HR to do its best to allow employees exit with their heads high. And communicators, let people know in and outside the organization. Avoid having employees disappear one day like an unperson or a rival politician in Putin’s Russia.

In the end, Dom and Ruthie showed a smidge of empathy, though it took Pietsch becoming emotional to push the two HR people there. Prior to that, “they sounded like AI bots,” a veteran PR pro said. Indeed, could a generative AI tool have handled this situation with less humanity than Dom, Ruthie and Cloudflare were initially prepared to provide?   

Gold Standard? Since it’s well known that HR people work for management, not employees, some critics argue there’s no such thing as a compassionate layoff or a clean firing. 

Ann Marie Squeo, CEO & Founder, Proof Point Communications, disagrees. For her the video’s lesson comes down to humanity. Pietsch was fired “without explanation and by two HR folks she'd never met … it's painful,” Squeo blogged  on LinkedIn. 

“Yet this happens all the time in corporate life. I should know; it happened to me in a display of total cowardice. More crushing than being let go … was the lack of respect shown to someone who had worked tirelessly to meet unrealistic objectives. To be responsible for other people means you own that relationship from hiring to firing. You don't outsource your responsibility when it's uncomfortable.” 

She continued, “Letting people go shouldn't be easy … transparency and responsibility are essential at all levels of an organization -- from the CEO on down. HR friends: don't let this happen where you work. Push executives to be better. Bigger compensation means bigger responsibility.” 

Amen.