Red Mike Messaging and F2 Consulting

There is a right way and a wrong way to lay someone off. Today, I am sharing my lay off story and what I believe is a wrong way. I was laid off right before the holidays after 7 years at Cozymeal with no notice and no severance. In the middle of my work day, I was just about to send an email when I was logged out of my account. “Weird,” I thought, and tried to log back in. Then I got the error notice: “Your employer has disabled your email account.” Then, a ping on Skype from the CEO asking if I had a second. I joined the call and HR was added. Within a minute, I was told I was laid off along with 40% of staff, I would receive no severance, and I would be sent an email shortly confirming termination of my health insurance. That was it. No thank you for my 7 years of service and everything I built for the company or for the 7 departments and different teams that I led (Host/Partner Operations, Content, Experiences Team, Brand Partnerships, Social Media, Email Marketing, etc.). Over the past year, international employees were brought on and slowly replaced higher paid workers. It was black and white. “No hard feelings, it’s just business.” This was the worst part for me: I had meetings scheduled that day and that week that I would be a no-show to. I was given zero notice to tie up loose ends or get my affairs in order. I had clients I was working with and speaking with for months on brand partnerships that never heard from me again. I had many people reach out to me on LinkedIn. One email made my heart sink: “I emailed you to wish you a Merry Christmas and got a response that you were no longer with the company. I was so surprised you wouldn’t email me to let you know you were leaving.” Anyone that knows me knows the great pride I take in my work and how hard of a worker I am. I work tirelessly and make my job a large sense of my identity and purpose. Not being able to close things properly destroyed me. I wasn’t as upset about commissions I wouldn’t be paid or not receiving a severance as I was about this. At the end of the day, why am I sharing this with you? This all came from the same CEO who constantly told me and other employees that if we wanted to leave, we should provide a minimum of a month notice since we were a small team and it would be really hurting the company, and a 3 month notice was “the right thing to do.” I was constantly told a 2 week notice would not be enough and would be disrespectful. I was told that if I ever moved on, I should remain on to hire and train a successor. Other employees were praised when they moved on but continued to work part-time to train and finish projects. I remember my husband overheard one of the many times I was told this once and said to me, “I hope that would go both ways.” It didn’t. I want to share this as a reminder to companies to show empathy and to treat employees with the same respect you demand. We can do better.