- Woman Who Was Laid-Off Says She Has 10 Years Of Job Experience And Has Applied To Over 100 Positions But Can’t Receive A Single Offer YourTango
- Man fails job interview after being rude to receptionist (who was secretly the recruitment manager) Daily Mail
- ‘I would highly recommend asking about the turnover for that position’: Woman says she applied to the same job three times in a row The Daily Dot
- Job Applicant Spent $350 On A New Suit For An Interview But Was Turned Away Because He Was 1 Minute Late—’We Are Very Time Strict Here’ YourTango
- Boss explains secret job interview ‘coffee test’ – and brutal consequences for failing The Mirror
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Tag Archives: laidoff
Laid-off Twitter software engineer calls job market ‘hot garbage’: ‘maybe I should go be a firefighter’ – Yahoo News
- Laid-off Twitter software engineer calls job market ‘hot garbage’: ‘maybe I should go be a firefighter’ Yahoo News
- Musk laughs at Twitter staff unaware of his job status: ‘treats people like…’ Hindustan Times
- Former Twitter Blue head who slept in office breaks silence days after Elon Musk fired her India Today
- ”Access To My Computer Was Cut”: Laid-Off Twitter Employee Accuses The Company Of Ghosting Him NDTV
- ‘People who remain after layoffs get demonized’ : Twitter employee who got fired after sleeping in office breaks silence Business Today
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Laid-off Twitter workers must drop class-action severance lawsuit, judge says
A judge has ordered a group of laid-off Twitter employees to drop their class action lawsuit against the company, which accuses Twitter of not following through on its promised severance pay package, as reported earlier by Bloomberg and Reuters. In a ruling on Friday, US District Judge James Donato states that the workers must make their case in private arbitration instead, citing the employment contract they signed with Twitter.
According to the ruling, Twitter’s contract “expressly” states that arbitration isn’t mandatory, and also provides an option for employees to opt out of the procedure. The judge says employees failed to opt out of arbitration, which would’ve given them a chance to settle things in court. Twitter’s contract also contained a class action waiver, the ruling notes.
“Twitter provided signed copies of the agreements, and they are all clear and straightforward.” While five of the employees “are ordered to arbitration on an individual basis,” the judge will decide at a later date what to do with the three other workers who joined the suit in December and state that they opted out of the arbitration agreement.
The group of ex-Twitter employees first filed the class action suit in November and accused Twitter of not providing enough notice before they were laid off in violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires employers to provide 60 days of notice for company-wide layoffs. They later amended the complaint to include allegations that Twitter breached its contract by not providing the severance pay they’re owed.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney representing the Twitter employees, responded to the ruling in a post on Twitter. “We anticipated this and that’s why we have already filed 500 individual arbitration demands — and counting,” Liss-Riordan writes. “This is not a win for @elonmusk. Twitter still has to answer claims in court, on top of the arbitration battles.”
Twitter’s laid-off workers cannot pursue claims via class-action lawsuit, judge says
(TWTR) has secured a ruling allowing the social media company to force several laid-off workers suing over their termination to pursue their claims via individual arbitration rather than a class-action lawsuit.
US District Judge James Donato on Friday ruled that five former Twitter employees pursuing a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before laying them off after its acquisition by Elon Musk must pursue their claims in private arbitration.
Donato granted Twitter’s request to force the five ex-employees to pursue their claims individually, citing agreements they signed with the company.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The San Francisco judge left for another day “as warranted by developments in the case” whether the entire class action lawsuit must be dismissed, though, as he noted three other former Twitter employees who alleged they had opted out of the company’s arbitration agreement have joined the lawsuit after it was first filed.
The lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, Shannon Liss-Riordan, said on Monday that she had already filed 300 demands for arbitration on behalf of former Twitter employees and would likely file hundreds more.
Those workers all claim they have not received the full severance package promised by Twitter before Musk took over. Some have also alleged sex or disability discrimination.
Last year, Donato had ruled that Twitter must notify the thousands of workers who were laid off after its acquisition by Musk following a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before terminating them.
The judge said that before asking workers to sign severance agreements waiving their ability to sue the company, Twitter must give them “a succinct and plainly worded notice.”
Twitter laid off roughly 3,700 employees in early November in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, and hundreds more subsequently resigned.
In December last year, Twitter was also accused by dozens of former employees of various legal violations stemming from Musk’s takeover of the company, including targeting women for layoffs and failing to pay promised severance.
Twitter is also facing at least three complaints filed with a US labor board claiming workers were fired for criticizing the company, attempting to organize a strike, and other conduct protected by federal labor law.
Twitter’s laid-off workers cannot pursue claims via class-action lawsuit-judge
Jan 14 (Reuters) – Twitter Inc has secured a ruling allowing the social media company to force several laid-off workers suing over their termination to pursue their claims via individual arbitration than a class-action lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge James Donato on Friday ruled that five former Twitter employees pursuing a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before laying them off after its acquisition by Elon Musk must pursue their claims in private arbitration.
Donato granted Twitter’s request to force the five ex-employees to pursue their claims individually, citing agreements they signed with the company.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The San Francisco judge left for another day “as warranted by developments in the case” whether the entire class action lawsuit must be dismissed, though, as he noted three other former Twitter employees who alleged they had opted out of the company’s arbitration agreement have joined the lawsuit after it was first filed.
The lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, Shannon Liss-Riordan, said on Monday that she had already filed 300 demands for arbitration on behalf of former Twitter employees and would likely file hundreds more.
Those workers all claim they have not received the full severance package promised by Twitter before Musk took over. Some have also alleged sex or disability discrimination.
Last year, Donato had ruled that Twitter must notify the thousands of workers who were laid off after its acquisition by Musk following a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before terminating them.
The judge said that before asking workers to sign severance agreements waiving their ability to sue the company, Twitter must give them “a succinct and plainly worded notice”.
Twitter laid off roughly 3,700 employees in early November in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, and hundreds more subsequently resigned.
In December last year, Twitter was also accused by dozens of former employees of various legal violations stemming from Musk’s takeover of the company, including targeting women for layoffs and failing to pay promised severance.
Twitter is also facing at least three complaints filed with a U.S. labor board claiming workers were fired for criticizing the company, attempting to organize a strike, and other conduct protected by federal labor law.
Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru, Nate Raymond in Boston, and Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Angus MacSwan and Deepa Babington
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Twitter Asks Dozens Of Laid-Off Staff To Return, Cites ‘Mistake’: Report
After Twitter is now reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs.
After Twitter Inc laid off roughly half its staff on Friday following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition, the company is now reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs and asking them to return, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.
Some of those who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake. Others were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features Elon Musk envisions, the report said citing people familiar with the moves.
Twitter recently laid off 50% of its employees, including employees on the trust and safety team, the company’s head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth said in a tweet earlier this week.
Tweets by staff of the social media company said teams responsible for communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics were among those gutted, as were some product and engineering teams.
Twitter on Saturday updated its app in Apple’s App Store to begin charging $8 for sought-after blue check verification marks, in Elon Musk’s first major revision of the social media platform.
Twitter did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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Laid-Off HBO Max Execs Reveal Warner Bros. Discovery Is Killing Off Diversity and Courting ‘Middle America’
Former HBO Max executives say the streaming service has been left with few people of color to oversee its diverse slate of programming as Warner Bros. Discovery continues its ongoing corporate reshuffling.
The platform reportedly laid off close to 70 people this month. That includes the entire teams overseeing unscripted, kids and family, and international content, according to two former HBO Max execs who asked not to be named.
Those three divisions, responsible for buying shows from production companies and creators and working closely with them during production, are now completely gone.
One former employee says as many as 13 people of color previously in charge of developing shows like The Gordita Chronicles and the Spanish-language docuseries Menudo: Forever Young have been let go, likely influencing the types of shows and movies that are greenlit moving forward. Among those laid off are Jen Kim, an Asian woman who served as the senior vice president of the international team, and Kaela Barnes, a Black woman who worked under Kim.
“I don’t think anyone knows just how white the staff is,” one former executive told The Daily Beast.
Former HBO Max staffers say there are barely any non-white people left in the upper ranks of content, with one naming Joey Chavez, an executive vice president of drama, as one of the few people of color still there. Because HBO Max and the original HBO channel operate somewhat independently, one former executive conceded that “there may be one Black woman on the HBO side. Maybe.”
The layoffs have “amplified the lack of diversity at HBO,” another former executive told The Daily Beast. “HBO is the most homogenous part of this umbrella. Instead of trying to figure out how to integrate some of the [Max] executives into HBO, they just made this sweeping cut of three divisions: kids, family, and international. A lot of Black and brown people lost their jobs.”
Ever since parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery earlier this year, employees at Warner have grappled with the changing values of the newly created company. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was charged with helping Warner crawl out of a $50 billion hole. He came in like a wrecking ball, tearing up CNN’s $300 million streaming service CNN+ and vowing to pull the Warner-owned news channel away from “advocacy” journalism.
More changes have come in the past couple of weeks.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Batgirl, the $90 million film planned for HBO Max starring Afro-Latina actress Leslie Grace, would be shelved completely in favor of a tax write-off. Over the weekend, CNN media correspondent and host Brian Stelter, a frequent target of right-wing criticism, was fired from the network.
Former Warner employees believe these changes are just as much about business as they are about reshaping the ideological perception of Warner properties. It all points to the same end, they say: A rejection of left-wing or highly diverse content in favor of more homogenous, Middle America-friendly fare. The lack of diversity in content staff might just make that goal easier.
“HBO is the most homogenous part of this umbrella. Instead of trying to figure out how to integrate some of the [Max] executives into HBO, they just made this sweeping cut of three divisions: kids, family, and international. A lot of Black and brown people lost their jobs.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, HBO highlighted shows like Euphoria, Rap Sh!t, A Black Lady Sketch Show and Los Espookys, all of which are led by diverse characters.
“HBO and HBO Max have always shown a commitment to diverse programming and storytellers, and always will,” the company said.
An internal graphic comparing the audiences of Discovery+ and HBO Max showed a stark demographic difference between the two streamers. Where HBO Max is popular with diverse groups, single people, and drivers of hybrid cars, Discovery+ is popular with white, married people who drive SUVs, minivans, and “traveling buses.” HBO Max viewers are on TikTok and Instagram, while Discovery+ viewers use social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, with the added caveat, “if any.” HBO Max viewers have no kids. Discovery+ viewers are either “empty nesters” or have grandchildren. Discovery may be trying to pull HBO into its orbit as it focuses on what it does best.
HBO Max’s reality offerings presented an obvious sticking point for the new bosses. Where Discovery properties like TLC and HGTV send camera crews out to film what they can find, HBO Max’s offerings are more carefully crafted. They’re sometimes buoyed by stars like Selena Gomez or Steph Curry, who have the power to command big paychecks, and they’re noticeably sleeker, with smoother edits and more complicated camera set-ups adding to their budgets.
One former exec describes Discovery+ as a “more general audience platform that doesn’t have the specificity that HBO Max was tailored to. I think Discovery is just a very ‘all’ audience, [they] don’t wanna make things that are political, topical, alienate Middle America—more Chip and Joanna,” they said, referring to the home renovation show Fixer Upper: Welcome Home hosted by Chip and Joanna Gaines.
“If David Zaslav had his wish, he would just program Chip and Joanna all day long,” the executive said. “There was just a massive, ‘We don’t need you. You’re not offering the things we’re focused on.’”
The change in perspective could also partly explain why so many titles have recently disappeared from HBO Max’s platform. Our sources agree that the removals are mostly related to money. The company can claim a tax break for the costs associated with certain shows as long as it promises to stop profiting off them, which means taking them down altogether.
“They’re canceling a lens of perspective that I don’t think exists when you look at Discovery-branded shows,” one former staffer said.
Speaking of the company’s plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into one giant streaming service in the near future, the laid-off exec said: “Don’t be surprised if there’s a new name for the platform.”
Overall, there’s a sense that HBO Max’s executives of color were just another casualty in the company’s quest to get itself out of debt, content quality be damned.
“In terms of people seeing themselves reflected, whether it’s ethnic or LGBTQ, when you have people who are diverse, the lens with which they evaluate [content] factors in things that I think my white colleagues just don’t think about,” one former executive said.
“It’s deep,” said another. “What are they going to do with this disproportionate amount of people of color that were let go? They need to replace them in some capacity. Or do they not care? That’s what we’ve been told, that they just don’t care.”
‘Epic disaster’: CNN+ shutdown leaves laid-off staffers furious as Fox News gloats
Staff at CNN’s short-lived streaming service CNN+ have been left ‘aghast and furious’ at management after the decision to end the service after only three weeks – describing it as ‘an absolute debacle.’
CNN’s new CEO Chris Licht – who does not officially take over until May 2 – told staff on Thursday that CNN+ was ending.
The service only began on March 29, and producers had lured over talent including former Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt, actress Eva Longoria, and chef Alison Roman.
The demise of CNN+ was greeted with joy by Fox News figures such as Greg Gutfeld, as well as critics of the network including Donald Trump and his son.
Insiders estimated the network spent $300 million launching and between $100 million and $200 million advertising. CNN had been planning to spend more than $1 billion on CNN+ over four years, two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times.
David Zaslav, who since the beginning of this month has led the newly-merged massive media giant, had been expected to bring in changes.
But one veteran staffer told The Washington Post: ‘We expected them to cut off a few fingers, not the entire arm.’
David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, took the helm of the newly-merged media company on April 8.
Chris Wallace, 74, joined Fox News in 2003 and left to host a show on CNN+. His former colleagues have gloated about the collapse of his new home
Stars of CNN+ including Kasie Hunt (third left), Chris Wallace (next to Hunt) and Anderson Cooper (third right) are seen on March 28 celebrating the launch of the streaming service
The new streaming service had been heavily advertised, but only had 150,000 subscribers
The 300 employees who had already started working at CNN+ were left fuming by Thursday’s announcement – despite the network saying it would try to transfer them to open positions in the company.
Layoffs are likely for people who are not placed in new jobs; they would receive at least six months of severance, according to reports.
Plenty within the service felt they had not been given a chance.
‘Many people left their stable jobs at CNN to go to CNN+ and then they pull it right after launch?’ a source told The New York Post.
‘Everyone is aghast and furious.’
Sara Sidner, who moved from LA to New York to host a CNN+ show, told Thursday’s meeting that the decision to end it so soon was ‘mind-blowing’
Another source complained to the paper: ‘The big people will likely be saved, but what about everybody else, the people who do the real work?’
Another was even more blunt.
‘This is f****** crazy, it is nuts.
‘This literally rivals the epic disaster of Quibi,’ the insider said, referring to the short-lived streaming platform that went out of business seven months after it launched in April 2020.
Licht broke the news on Thursday at a meeting held in a TV studio on the 19th floor of CNN’s headquarters in New York.
After his speech, according to The Washington Post, Sara Sidner, a long-serving CNN correspondent who moved from Los Angeles to New York to host a CNN Plus show, stood up and told the shocked crowd: ‘This is mind-blowing, to be perfectly honest.’
She later tweeted: ‘It’s over. It’s been the shortest most amazing ride #CNNPlus team.’
Hunt, reportedly enticed to leave MSNBC with a $1 million contract, tweeted: ‘The journalists I have been privileged to work with on CNN Plus are world class.
‘I am so incredibly proud to be able to call them colleagues.
‘If your organization would like a chance to benefit from their talents, my DMs are open
‘This is *my* job for the foreseeable future.
She added: ‘(Some of you are asking about me. I am proud to be on team CNN. I will be fine. It’s not about me right now.)’
Sources told The Post that CNN ‘overspent on talent’ by giving Wallace $9 million per year.
He is now thought likely to take over the 9 p.m. slot on CNN left vacant after the firing of Chris Cuomo in December.
Donald Trump was among those celebrating the demise of CNN’s new venture.
‘Congratulations to CNN+ on their decision to immediately FOLD for a lack of ratings, or viewers in any way, shape, or form,’ Trump said in a statement issued on Thursday.
‘It was like an empty desert out there despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars and the hiring of low-rated Chris Wallace, a man who tried so hard to be his father, Mike, but lacked the talent and whatever else is necessary to be a star.
‘In any event, it’s just one more piece of CNN and Fake News that we don’t have to bother with anymore!’
His son, Donald Trump Jr, tweeted a mocking meme, showing the famous dancing pallbearers of Ghana, with the CNN logo on the coffin.
The glossy launch party for CNN+ was only three weeks ago, on March 28
Greg Gutfeld, Fox News host, on Thursday was joking repeatedly about the demise of CNN+
Fox News hosts were also gloating about their rival network’s struggles.
Greg Gutfeld joked repeatedly about the situation on Thursday, commenting during a discussion about leaders of the Democratic Party: ‘The Democratic bench is thinner than Chris Wallace’s demo reel from CNN+.’
He later added: ‘BLM has done to black people what Chris Wallace did to CNN+. He enticed them with a promise and then ditched them on the side of the road.’
In another instance he joked, ‘A lot of these solutions that are coming from the left are unreliable, there are solar panels or windmills. Look at CNN+, how much money they invested in wind power by hiring Chris Wallace.’
During the final segment, Gutfeld aired a clip of a bison roaming through a town.
‘I haven’t done a celebrity sighting in awhile,’ he began. ‘As we know, CNN+ closed down, so you see a lot of their talent out on the street.
‘For example, I just looked out at Sixth Avenue, and who did I see just hanging out in front of a tavern? None other than, guess? Chris Wallace, just wandering around.’
The decision to close the streaming service, Licht told staff, was not due to any failure on their park.
The service has attracted 150,000 subscribers so far, paying $5.99 a month, and were on a pace to hit first-year subscription goals.
CNN+ was unable to show the same news shows as CNN, owing to existing contracts with cable tv providers. But they had encouraged their stars like Anderson Cooper to branch out into a parenting show, and had given Don Lemon a chat show.
Yet CNN’s new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery – officially formed from a merger on April 8 – was unimpressed by the figures.
At any given time, fewer than 10,000 people were watching the service, two people familiar with the numbers told The New York Times.
‘It’s not your fault that you had the rug pulled out from underneath you,’ Licht said on Thursday, according to a recording reviewed by the paper.
‘The new owner came in and said: ‘What a beautiful house! But I need an apartment.’
‘And that doesn’t take anything away from this beautiful house you built. I am proud of it, and I am proud of this team, and I am gutted by what this means for you.’