A marketing worker claims a fellow employee was asked to lie about why they were leaving their company after getting laid off by management.
In a viral video that has racked up over 324,000 views, TikTok user Kendall (@roilysm) told the “wild” layoff story.
“So I had an ex-co-worker that got laid off recently, and they called me and told me what happened,” she began in the clip.
According to Kendall, the pair worked as marketers at a tech company that “had several rounds of layoffs in the last year.” As a result, it appeared some former employees had taken to Glassdoor to leave bad reviews of the company.
“She told me that the company was so upset about the Glassdoor and some of the blind postings that they were getting were about the mass layoffs that they had done,” she continued.
The company then decided to be more discreet and fire employees in smaller groups to avoid drawing “negative media attention.” So, Kendall’s former co-worker was fired along with only four other workers. The woman was told that her role was “redundant” due to the company restructuring.
However, it appears that is not what management wanted her to tell others.
“How do you wanna message this to people?” They reportedly asked her.
@roilysm Dont let your employer bully you into lying! #techtok #techlayoffs #corporatetiktok #layoffs ♬ original sound – Kendall
When the woman responded that she would just be honest about getting laid off, that’s when the company’s higher-ups made it clear they wanted her to lie.
“Her manager has the audacity to say that they are really worried about the impact her layoff will have on the rest of the team,” Kendall said. “So they would prefer if she messaged it like she just wanted to take some time off and be with her family or she is exploring other pursuits.”
The TikToker found the request to be absolutely absurd.
“They literally asked a marketer to position her own layoff,” she said. “Absolutely insane, and if any company does this to you, just know that you should probably leave a very honest Glassdoor review.”
In the comments section, other TikTok users agreed that the employer was wrong for making the request.
“And that’s where you negotiate the exit package,” one user wrote.
Other commenters had heard of similar experiences, and some warned to never “repackage” a layoff.
“I’ve seen this before,” a viewer said. “If they want her to message her layoff in a certain way, there is a price for that.”
“Never agree to re-message your layoff as anything other than a layoff – your unemployment benefits could be adversely affected!” another warned.
The Daily Dot reached out to Kendall via email for comment.
