Even at the lower rung of the ladder, employees getting fired are communicated to personally or through an email (or the famous pink slips). Through a phone is unusual, but considering that a CEO of a major media giant was done in on a phone call is embarrassing, not for the CEO but for the company.
Carol Bartz was unceremoniously fired by the Yahoo board earlier today on the phone.
In grief, Carol didn’t just pack up the bags, but shot a mail to all her ex-employees, giving away pleasantries. I haven’t heard or seen anyone fired to be in the right senses to send out a good bye note to ex-colleagues. The mail was terse but it did the job to precision – exposing the management that needed to be sent to grade school to learn the right manners.
I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.
It is a sad day indeed, not just for the outgoing CEO but for the entire IT community to have witnessed such horrendous act of back stabbing. Ideally, it must have been done in person, does not matter if the employee is a CEO or a junior analyst.
In terms of results, Yahoo may not have achieved much since Carol took over. Share prices have remained stagnant since she was hired two years back. And, she still had 15 months left on her contract. Inside sources revealed that her blunt talking didn’t go well with the board, and this was on the cards for sometime, and even she had got the hints. But, on the phone, come on! Despicable.
