[font class="headline"]RadioShack Uses E-Mail to Fire Employees
[/font][font class="story"]RadioShack Corp. notified about 400 workers by e-mail that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned job cuts. [/font][font class="story"] Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages Tuesday morning saying: "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated." [/font][/p][font class="story"] Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site. [/font][/p][font class="story"] Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the [a style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" href="vny!://search.breitbart.com/q?s=%22University+of+North+Texas%22&sid=breitbart.com"]University of North Texas[/a], said he had never heard of such a large number of terminated employees being notified electronically. He said it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees.
[/font][/p][font class="story"][span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 191);"](No shit? And do you think that Radio Shack gives a crap as to whether it's "dehumanizing"? -tb)[/span] [/font][/p][font class="story"] "If I put myself in their shoes, I'd say, 'Didn't they have a few minutes to tell me?'" D'Souza said. [/font][/p][font class="story"] Laid-off workers got one to three weeks pay for each year of service, up to 16 weeks for hourly employees and 36 weeks for those with base bay of at least $90,000, the company said. [/font][/p][font class="story"] The company announced Aug. 10 that it would cut 400 to 450 jobs, mostly at headquarters, to cut expenses and "improve its long-term competitive position in the marketplace." RadioShack has closed nearly 500 stores, consolidated distribution centers and liquidated slow- moving merchandise in an effort to shake out of a sales slump. [/font][/p]
