Office workers in America, filled with anxiety about artificial intelligence-related layoffs, have been warned: don\u2019t expect a red carpet experience on the way out.<\/p>\n
Johnny C Taylor, head of the world\u2019s largest human resources organisation, said gone are the days when employees had a \u201cred carpet in, red carpet out\u201d experience when joining and leaving a company, with one-on-one consultations and perks such as CV and transition services at the exit gate.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cNow, it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Concierge-style layoffs came into fashion around 2015, when companies began to worry about the long-term cost of brutal \u201coffboarding\u201d in the age of Glassdoor and social media.<\/p>\n
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 \u201ccomputer is an important tool to find new work\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the era of remote and hybrid working, fired employees are generally spared the humiliation of the \u201ccardboard box\u201d moment, or so-called \u201cperp walk\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n
Companies will then arrange to have employees\u2019 remaining belongings shipped home to them, according to Taylor, who is president of the Society for Human Resource Management.<\/p>\n
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 \u201crunning around angry, carrying their boxes down\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cA lot of damage could be done in the 21st century way of operating, so companies actually have to surgically shut down access systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Big layoff rounds so far this year have included Amazon\u2019s decision in January to eliminate about 16,000 corporate jobs<\/a>, its second round of mass job cuts since last October; Morgan Stanley\u2019s plan, revealed this month, to cut about 2,500 jobs, or 3 per cent of its global workforce<\/a>, in a broad round of layoffs; and United Parcel Service\u2019s decision in January to cut up to 30,000 operational positions.<\/p>\n The US jobs market overall has been characterised as \u201clow hire, low fire\u201d over the last year, as companies have been both cautious about losing talent and wary of overexpanding amid uncertainty around tariffs and AI disruption.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n