Office workers in America, filled with anxiety about artificial intelligence-related layoffs, have been warned: don’t expect a red carpet experience on the way out.

Johnny C Taylor, head of the world’s largest human resources organisation, said gone are the days when employees had a “red carpet in, red carpet out” experience when joining and leaving a company, with one-on-one consultations and perks such as CV and transition services at the exit gate.

He said: “Now, it’s definitely red carpet on the way in. We will woo you. We will court you. We will treat you really well on the way in, if we want you. On the way out, it’s not a red carpet any more. They are going to pull the rug from under you. It is sterile and surgical in execution and that is a big difference.”

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Concierge-style layoffs came into fashion around 2015, when companies began to worry about the long-term cost of brutal “offboarding” in the age of Glassdoor and social media.

In 2020, when Airbnb laid off 25 per cent of its workforce during the pandemic, the short-term rental company assigned a significant portion of its recruiting team to helping sacked workers find new jobs. It also offered four months of career services through RiseSmart, a company that specialises in career transition and job placement services, and allowed everyone who was laid off to keep their Apple laptops, noting that a “computer is an important tool to find new work”.

In the era of remote and hybrid working, fired employees are generally spared the humiliation of the “cardboard box” moment, or so-called “perp walk”, when fired workers were escorted off the premises by security. More commonly now, employees will discover they have been fired when they suddenly cannot log in to Slack or their emails remotely.

Companies will then arrange to have employees’ remaining belongings shipped home to them, according to Taylor, who is president of the Society for Human Resource Management.

He said that while empathy requires a one-on-one briefing, it can be impossible for HR to do so in a mass layoff scenario. No HR department would bring employees into the office because it would risk them stealing property and proprietary information, or having thousands of people “running around angry, carrying their boxes down”.

He added: “A lot of damage could be done in the 21st century way of operating, so companies actually have to surgically shut down access systems.”

Big layoff rounds so far this year have included Amazon’s decision in January to eliminate about 16,000 corporate jobs, its second round of mass job cuts since last October; Morgan Stanley’s plan, revealed this month, to cut about 2,500 jobs, or 3 per cent of its global workforce, in a broad round of layoffs; and United Parcel Service’s decision in January to cut up to 30,000 operational positions.

The US jobs market overall has been characterised as “low hire, low fire” over the last year, as companies have been both cautious about losing talent and wary of overexpanding amid uncertainty around tariffs and AI disruption.

Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, noted last week that labour demand has softened. He also said the unemployment rate of 4.4 per cent in February has changed little since last summer, while other indicators such as job openings, layoffs and hiring have also changed little in recent months. However, the number of Fed officials on the open market committee in March who saw upside risks to their unemployment forecast rose from 13 to 16 of the 19 members.

At least in the tech sector, where further layoffs are anticipated to offset AI infrastructure spending, HR professionals believe the decision by Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Block, to cut 40 per cent of his workforce on generous severance terms could help set a precedent. Those terms included 20 weeks’ salary plus one additional week for every year of tenure at the company, equity vested through the end of May, six months of healthcare coverage, their corporate devices and $5,000 to use however they need during the transition. According to a severance report by the law firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the average severance across all industries was 19.3 weeks in 2024, up from 15.6 weeks the prior year.

When workers are in high demand, employers are more likely to consider how former employees can be vocal brand ambassadors, or detractors, in the talent market. However, for sectors where AI technology could reduce demand for labour, employers may opt for swiftness and brutality over reputation management.

Louisa Clarence-Smith is US business editor