Recently, many of the new workplace trends have emanated from TikTok. Influencers have ushered in new themes, such as bare minimum Mondays, acting your wage, quiet quitting and rage applying. A new phenomenon has arisen where employees are now documenting their layoffs on the social media platform.
This week, Brittany Pietsch, a mid-market account executive at Cloudflare, an Internet infrastructure provider that offers a variety of security, performance and reliability services for websites and applications, went viral after posting a video of her being let go from the tech company.
Pietsch anticipated her firing, as her “work bff” had been given the pink slip 30 minutes prior to her meeting. The account executive was joined on a video call by a member of the human resources team and another individual, who didn’t introduce himself and jumped right into the purpose of the call, “We have an important meeting today. We finished our evaluations of 2023 performance. This is where you have not met Cloudflare expectations for performance. We have decided to part ways with you.”
Pietsch quickly interjected to advocate for herself and dispel their claims, “So, I started August 25th. I’ve been on a three-month ramp, and then it was three weeks of December and then a week of Christmas and then here we are. I have had the highest activity amongst my team.” She went on to say about the decision, “I don’t think that makes a lot of sense for me and my Cloudflare journey here so far. Also, every single one-on-one I’ve had with my manager, every conversation I have had with him, he has been giving me nothing but I am doing a great job.”
Pietsch disagreed with the company’s assessment that her termination with the organization was performance-based and inquired why her manager was not a part of this meeting, as the two company representatives on the other end of the call were not her direct managers or supervisors. “We have never met,” she said.
Pietsch was assured that she was not being singled out and that this was a “collective calibration for Cloudflare.” Although the employee was told the firing decision was based on her performance, they were unable to provide any specific metrics, at the moment, that would explain why she was being let go.
She pushed back against their corporate jargon, buzzwords and platitudes, “So am I getting let go for no reason?” Pietsch accused the Cloudflare personnel of “wrecking” the lives of her peers with no explanation, which she called a “slap in the face.”
Prior to her termination, she alleges that she had not received any negative feedback and was never put on a performance improvement plan. Companies use PIPs to identify deficiencies and offer ways for struggling employees to improve. There will be specific objectives and goals set for the person to meet.
The Cloudflare executive said, “From a process perspective, your questions are valid. This isn’t going to be the forum and situation where we will be able to go into the detail.” Pietsch responded, “But then when? If it’s not right as I’m getting fired, it’s certainly not going to be after, when I’m no longer part of the company.”
The conversation ended with the HR professional letting her know that she would “circle back.”
What Should Have Happened
“There were a few missteps here,” said Valerie Vadala, an experienced global talent acquisition leader who served in executive roles at Wells Fargo, Shutterstock, Invesco, OppenheimerFunds, Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers. “I think the biggest is that her manager was not present.”
Vadala herself has been in the difficult position of having to lay off people on her team and “it’s one of the most difficult things a manager has to do.”
She added, “It’s a sign of leadership to be present and to let the employee know that the company realizes it is personal. It’s incredibly painful to be laid off. To make it something cold and transactional is denying the reality that you have just gut punched a person’s career trajectory.”
The HR executive said that Pietsch’s firing was “incredibly egregious” by making it performance-based. “If you are doing a companywide layoff, which this clearly was, don’t make it about performance.”
When a business conducts layoffs, that is typically an indicator that the company is not performing well—not the employee. To make it about the employee at that moment is cruel and unfair, she said. “Not to mention the fact that it sounds like it was untrue in this case anyway.”
Vadala, who has over 20 years of human resources and talent acquisition experience, shared, “This may not be a popular opinion, but I don’t love the trend that companies choose to blindside employees instead of at least giving them some sort of heads up that a potential layoff is on the horizon and that specific teams are likely to be impacted. This not only prepares people for the possibility, but also allows them to get a head start in potentially finding another opportunity. That’s probably exactly what employers are trying to avoid, but it would be a far more empathetic approach.”
A Cloudflare spokesperson said in a statement to Inc., “Cloudflare did not conduct layoffs and is not engaged in a reduction of force. When we do make the decision to part ways with an employee, we base the decision on a review of an employee’s ability to meet measurable performance targets. We regularly review team members’ performance and let go of those who aren’t right for our team. There is nothing unique about that review process or the number of people we let go after performance review this quarter.”
Early Friday morning, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince posted on X that his company fired approximately 40 out of its 1,500 people in its market org, which he shares is a typical quarterly target. He goes on to say, “When we’re doing performance management right, we can often tell within 3 months or less of a sales hire, even during the holidays, whether they’re going to be successful or not. Sadly, we don’t hire perfectly. We try to fire perfectly. In this case, clearly we were far from perfect. The video is painful for me to watch. Managers should always be involved. HR should be involved, but it shouldn’t be outsourced to them. No employee should ever actually be surprised they weren’t performing.”
Source: Forbes
