Corporations Turn to Emails, Zoom Calls to Conduct Impersonal Mass Layoffs

The methods used in corporate force reductions are changing, becoming increasingly one-sided and digital. The Wall Street Journal reported several examples of the emerging tactics during the last year.

When Southwest Airlines eliminated 1,750 jobs—15 percent of its corporate workforce—in March, for instance, the company closed corporate offices for the day. Some staffers learned of their termination from short, scripted video calls set to listen-only mode.

Last month, Amazon announced it would make 14,000 job cuts, a first wave of eliminations that could go as high as 30,000 corporate jobs.

“Some staffers learned of their fate via text at home telling them to consult their inboxes,” the Journal reported. There, they found an email saying their job had been eliminated, and if they wanted they could join a voluntary meeting with a human resources representative to ask questions.

“The swift text-email combination marked yet another evolution in the often-changing tactics employers deploy to jettison workers,” the Journal noted. “The pandemic brought on the rise of individual Zoom calls and surprise calendar invites to HR meetings. Now, the aim is to keep layoffs even more efficient—with fewer chances for ugly public scenes or communal emoting.”

One more example: Target cut 1,800 corporate positions last month, which included approximately 1,000 layoffs. Employees were asked to work from home the next week. On Tuesday of that week, Target sent an email at 8 a.m. to employees whose positions were being cut, instructing them to join a 9 a.m. audio call. An audio glitch affected some of those being terminated via a Zoom call, and the company emailed workers apologizing for the technical issue and informing them that they had, in fact, been laid off. Those who still had jobs were emailed at 9:17 a.m. informing them of the cuts that had occurred.

The Wall Street Journal interviewed Gartner advisor George Penn, who said the goal of this method of employment communication was to act “as quickly as possible across a large swath of the employee population.” This controls the message, he said, and limits stress on workers—though he noted there is never a good way to tell employees they are losing their jobs.

The Minnesota Star Tribune asked Connie Wanberg, a University of Minnesota professor, about the trends in mass corporate downsizing. “Layoffs have become more systematized,” she said. “During the pandemic many companies had to communicate sensitive news remotely, and that practice has persisted.”

“But corporate indifference isn't always the problem, according to HR professionals. Instead, many organizations need to overcome the logistical challenge of managing layoffs across a widely dispersed workfroce,” the Star Tribune reported. “’Organizations are under more pressure than ever to move quickly because of heavier workloads and constant change,’ Wanberg said. She added that email notices allow everyone to find out at once, but the tone can come across as ‘matter-of-fact’ and ‘uncaring.’”

Another trend has been dubbed “the forever layoff” by Glassdoor, the recruitment and community sharing website. Forever layoffs are when employers complete force reductions in small layoffs spread out over months.

“Small layoffs,” described as layoffs involving fewer than 50 separations, “are now the most common type, rising from 38 percent of layoffs in 2015 to 51 percent in 2025,” Glassdoor said in its Worklife Trends Report released earlier this month. “And that trend will stoke worker anxiety as it continues in 2026.”

One reason companies use the practice is to avoid the WARN Act, a U.S. federal law requiring companies to announce closures and layoffs, except when laying off fewer than 50 workers (though some U.S. states have more stringent requirements).

The report noted that companies employing the practice may stay out of splashy news reports about large-scale cuts, “but they create cultures of anxiety, insecurity, and resentment in companies.”

The delayed U.S. Federal Jobs Report for September released today found that despite the layoff announcements from several large firms, employers added 119,000 jobs in the month of September, beating expectations. However, the unemployment rate climbed 0.1 percent to 4.4 percent.

The Challenger Report on the job market, from placement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, tracks corporate job announcements. The October report, published 6 November, said the 153,074 job cuts in the month of October was the highest October total since 2003.

“This is the highest total for October in over 20 years, and the highest total for a single month in the fourth quarter since 2008,” the report noted. “Like in 2003, a disruptive technology is changing the landscape.”

The Labor Department announced yesterday that due to the extended government shutdown, they would not have an October Jobs Report, and would fold the information they have into the November report, scheduled for release on 16 December.

Terminations can be intensely emotional and sometimes humiliating for those affected, wrote Kevin Jones, CPP, site security manager for a nationwide technology company, for Security Management in October 2025. That humiliating experience can further compound feelings of resentment or grievance and potentially create a threat.

“Providing sufficient time and employing a dignity-centered approach during the termination process can significantly reduce the potential threat factors while fostering a sense of support and respect for the departing employee,” Jones explained. “This approach helps mitigate emotional escalation, preserves the individual’s self-worth, and decreases the likelihood of retaliatory or disruptive incidents.” 

For more on planning terminations while maintaining employee dignity, revisit our series on Handling Disruptive Behavior.