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Much of Netiquette involves email communications between two people or among a small group. In
my book, noted below, I discuss email and bad news. Using electronic
communication in this way is really a last resort if the message pr
sentiment can be done in a more personal way, even by phone.
When I read the article below, I was very taken aback by the way an entire company was laid off! I assume most of these people worked in the same location. To chose email to achieve this was , in my opinion, despicable.
For you readers, read on and decide for yourselves.
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Good Netiquette to all!
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A startup
dissolved overnight and laid off its 400 employees via email with no warning
From http://uk.businessinsider.com/ Aug.
11, 2015, 1:13 AM
Aug. 11, 2015, 1:13 AM
In the middle of the night, a startup that had raised $5.5
million dissolved and disappeared. It deleted its Twitter accounts, Facebook
pages, and Google+ profile. It changed its website to say it was "pausing
operations."
At
1:34 a.m. PT on Monday, Zirtual, a virtual-assistant company, sent
an email to all of its employees saying it had ceased operations, effective
immediately.
A
follow-up note to its clients said it was "pausing operations" to
reorganize its structure.
The
news stung because there was no warning from the company, according to several
former employees who spoke with Business Insider.
The
company and its CEO, Maren Kate Donovan, did not respond to requests for
comment on this article.
Everything
seemed normal ...
Even
13 hours before it shut down, Zirtual was still accepting sign ups and the
money that came with them, according to Aaron Weber, who posted photos of his
short-lived run with Zirtual on Twitter.
Donovan,
the company's CEO and cofounder, had just written three weeks ago in Fortune about
the need for transparency during a company shift, saying employees needed time
to adjust:
Because
what my employees don't know could ultimately hurt the entire business. The
sooner your team knows about upcoming shifts in the company — the better.
Additionally, give your employees
ample time to adjust, as change in a company can often lead to people feeling
unstable in their positions. And be transparent.
Yet Monday's email was not a warning to employees, but a
door slammed in their face. Employees said they felt blindsided and not
prepared for the news, according to the employees Business Insider spoke with
and the outpouring of shock on Twitter.
"I
woke up this morning thinking it was a normal Monday morning. I was going to
wake up, have my coffee, and have my weekly morning call with my client,"
Carol Murrah, who had worked for Zirtual for 2 1/2 years, told Business
Insider.
Before
Murrah had a chance to read the email, the client broke the news over the phone
as Murrah tried to fire up her computer and found herself locked out.
"I
always knew I was going to get my paycheck, until today," Murrah said.
"I expected to get paid this Friday, and that's not happening."
Growing, but
too fast?
Former
employees told Business Insider the company had been on a rapid hiring spree
during the past 18 months, ballooning its numbers from around 150 to the 400
employees it laid off Monday.
In
an interview on Friday with Jason Calacanis — who is also an investor in the
company — on "This Week in Startups," Donovan said the hardest part
of scaling Zirtual was "growth capital."
"Since
we're employees versus contractors, it's hiring ahead, building out this
stuff," Donovan said of the challenges, just three days before the startup
shut down. "It's seeing the future and playing the game right now."
Over
the past few months, work had slowed from some of its virtual assistants, but
many thought it was because of the summer vacation season.
"In
the last two months or so, work has slowed down significantly," Murrah
said. "We were pretty confused as to why. We weren't having client
cancellations. We were never once told that was something to worry about."
For
employees, it seemed as if growth was on the up-and-up, according to several
virtual assistants we spoke with. Donovan's monthly "state of the
union" emails never hinted at problems, and there was even talk of
gradually raising the minimum wage of virtual assistants to $15 an hour from
$11. Zirtual was beta-testing a teams product that could allow whole teams to
sign up.
"We
were looking at it as, 'Oh, there's progression, we're growing,'" Daniell
Wells, a virtual assistant who was with the company since February, told
Business Insider.
What goes up,
must come down
In
the end, it's unclear why Zirtual has shut down, though it's clear it was in
haste. While the company had raised $5.5 million, all of its rounds after seed
funding were debt rounds, including one at the end of July.
When
it started, Zirtual was a personal, virtual concierge service that charged only
$99 a month for unlimited tasks, Donovan said on the show. The company has been
loyal to some of those plans, though, and that may have cost it.
"A
completely unsustainable business model, but we still have some legacy plans
that are sticking around," Donovan told Calacanis. "We grandfathered
a crap ton of stuff."
Calacanis,
who had interviewed Donovan on Friday, said on Twitter he found out as an
investor that there were problems only on Saturday, though he hopes it can make a comeback.
Calacanis
did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTgYHHKs0Zw&__scoop_post=bcaa0440-2548-11e5-c1bd-90b11c3d2b20&__scoop_topic=2455618
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