Several hundred employees of Radio Shack received a surprise when they opened their email a few days before Labor Day.
It wasn't some spam message, touting products they didn't need nor want. Nor was it one of those Internet chain letters that urge you to forward the subject email to everyone in your address book if you want to have good luck. It wasn't a virus.
It was an email telling them they had been fired.
According to reports published by the Associated Press, some 400 Radio Shack employees received an email last Tuesday which said, "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated."
Why couldn't they use the phone and at least call these employees? Radio Shack sells phones.
The employees impacted by the termination emails worked at Radio Shack's headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Radio Shack issued a statement that employees were told that termination notices would be sent by email, according to the Associated Press.
Even Donald Trump tells "Apprentice" hopefuls they've been fired in a face-to-face meeting. It's central to that television show.
Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, told the Associated Press he had never heard of a case in which email had been used to fire such a large number of employees, and that it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees.
