To think it is wrong to tell people of redundancies by email, and on a Friday before a bank holiday

[ForalltheSaints]

As has happened to those who work for the Evening Standard today. Managed by Gideon Osbourne, former chancellor.

I didn't read it when I read the paper on my way home today, surprise, surprise.

Oh that's just despicable.

On the Friday is Ok. At least they have a few days off before they need to come back to work.

By email is a disgrace.

That's fucking awful

Really properly shitty

oh dear

by email so no one sat down with them individually....horrendous. And cowardly.

and the timing is designed to mitigate the results for them, not so that employees can digest it, but so that employees will calm down.

Is the evening standard folding?

That's really shit.

Worst one I've ever heard was my friend's DH in the US found out he longer had a job when an email was sent to all staff along the lines of "if your name is not on the list below you no longer have a role..."

George Osbourne. Not Gideon!

His name is George. Calling him Gideon is rude, inappropriate and undermines any argument you might be making.

oh I've just seen the email on Twitter

so it's announcing a consultation....not quite as bad as I feared, I thought individuals had got redundancy notices via email.

I would still think he should have done the decent thing - does he ever actually go to the office, I don't know - and had a town meeting and announced the consultation period.

Don’t you just love some companies’ insensitivity. One of my companies announced the same on Xmas eve. Killed everyones xmases stone dead.

I actually got redundancy in the first week of December a few years back.

They were really decent about it though, good pay off, the director doing it was almost in tears. He did say they had considered the timing but given that they knew some of us were being let go, it seemed unfair to sit on the information.

Interestingly all of us were pleased with the payoff we got but colleagues were very "OMD couldn't they have waited till after Xmas". We were also allowed to go immediately, but given unlimited access to computer and printer for jobhunting for a month. If there's a way to do this right, that was it.

Mr Osbourne made a virtue of saying he goes into the office at some early hour each day, at about the time his editorship became his fourth (or was it fifth) job.

If you read the bitter editorials in the paper some days about Brexit and the Conservative Party you can have no doubt he has a fairly hands-on role in the paper's content.

I would rather be told by email personally. Sorry to all those who lost their jobs.

No, I don’t as a business Friday is the best for delivering “bad” news... and tbh this is just at consultation stage, no redundancies have been made.

you get to digest the news over the weekend (bank holiday is just a coincidence).

His name is George. Calling him Gideon is rude, inappropriate and undermines any argument you might be making

Gideon, is that you?

OP I don't read it. I stopped when he got the job.

I also had a period where I didn't read it because I was unhappy about something that I considered a massive breach of someone's privacy but then all the papers went that way. (It was in the case of a murder victim).

so I've not seen the bitter editorials but I can imagine!

His name is George. Calling him Gideon is rude, inappropriate and undermines any argument you might be making.

WTF?? 😂
It was clearly a mistake/ typo/ autocorrect, we all knew who she meant!

Wasn't he called Gideon until he changed his name as a teenager?

Gideon is one of his middle names - I just googled him!

Personally I have been made redundant on five occasions, and in all cases was told in person. Happily on four of them I had another job either offered after the consultation or found another one, but I would have been very upset to have been told in the manner that the Evening Standard employees have been advised.

His given names were Gideon Oliver, he started using George as a teemager. George was not on his birth certificate but he may have subsequently added it by deed poll.

I was told on Christmas Eve once that my job was ‘at risk’. Massive public sector organisation. Despicable.

I don’t mind having information by email if there’s a face to face to go with it. And I don’t mind Friday as you have Saturday and Sunday to come to terms, make a plan, list questions etc.

I got put at risk of redundancy on a Thursday. I wasn’t worth a button on the Friday, thankfully I was already off as I had been crying the whole day before since I got the news and couldn’t have gone in anyway.

It’s not good employee relations practice to make that announcement by email. Plus it’s relying on staff reading the email which is not ideal.

If it's about a consultation, email is fine.

Nothing wrong with a Friday.

I agree with above, Christmas is not great. I had to get rid of very long term employees just before Christmas, that felt pretty shit.
Someone on their return from honeymoon, that didn't feel too good either - if the business had told them before they could have at least decided to take a longer one

I was fired by the NHS due to an injury and resulting lack of capability. I’d been there 25 years and was awaiting an NHS surgery.

Anyway they wrote to me asking me to attend a meeting to confirm this on the last working day before Christmas. Like I was a problem to get dealt with and off their plates before their jollies.

I refused to attend and when the meeting did take place I was asked if I had anything to say and I told them absolutely clearly that I found this callous and miserable beyond belief. The HR people looked extremely uncomfortable and apologised.

There are better ways.