How Weight Watchers Fired Workers Via Zoom, The New Cruel COVID-19 Layoff Tool

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Doesn't Oprah own this? The company claims they didn't just target women over 50. And yes many other companies are doing the same. It is just surprising that this company of all would do it when so many more had turned to them in this pandemic. Just a total lack of empathy to lay-off by zoom. A lot of women have supported this company over the years. Including me.

Weight Watchers unceremoniously dumped...many...last week in audio-only Zoom calls that lasted mere minutes. Employees logged on and listened to a manager read from a script. Their voices were muted so they couldn’t ask questions. They were told not to talk about it with anyone, some of those now-former Weight Watchers employees told HuffPost.

When the call was over, they were shut out of all WW employee websites and their emails were closed down by the weekend. Some of those who were laid off had worked decades for the company and had started out as members trying to lose weight themselves.

WW would not say how many employees were let go worldwide when asked about an anonymous post on TheLayoff.com that claimed thousands were fired. But the company reported to the federal government that it had 17,000 employees, a majority of whom are part-time, as of December 2019. And last week it said in public filings that it would be cutting its workforce amid the pandemic-driven economic downturn and that it expected to spend $12 million in employee termination payments and related costs...

Socially distant layoffs have become the thing to do during the pandemic. Scooter company Bird laid off 400 employees in a two-minute Zoom chat that the company’s CEO later said he regretted. Uber fired 3,700 workers via Zoom earlier this month.

more:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/weight-watchers-layoffs-zoom_n_5ec6e426c5b6426f5d6ffedd?ncid=%20edlinkusaolp00000029