BuzzFeed, which recently completed its acquisition of HuffPost, announced today that it is laying off 47 employees in order to “fast-track the path to profitability” for HuffPost:
BREAKING: BuzzFeed announced layoffs for the HuffPost newsroom on Tuesday, three weeks after acquiring HuffPost from Verizon Media in February. https://t.co/slfVoyqXAl
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) March 9, 2021
They’re reportedly closing the Canada operation and will discuss shrinking UK and Australia:
Layoffs hitting HuffPost today, weeks after it was acquired by BuzzFeed:
– 47 staffers in the US
– exec editor Hillary Frey and international exec editor Louise Roug have decided to leave
– closing HuffPost Canada
– consultations on slimming down UK/ Aus https://t.co/70g5YfAxWM— Steven Perlberg (@perlberg) March 9, 2021
But it’s *how* BuzzFeed let these employees know that’s being criticized as well. According to GQ’s Laura Bassett, HuffPost staffers “were invited to a meeting with the password ‘spring is here'” and then told if “they didn’t receive an email by 1” they still had a job:
HuffPost employees, after a year of working through a pandemic that isn't over, were invited to a meeting today with the password "spring is here," where they were told 47 of them would be laid off. They would only know if they still had a job if they didn't receive an email by 1
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) March 9, 2021
Bassett went on to call this “cruel and psychotic and ridiculous”:
That is cruel and psychotic and ridiculous.
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) March 9, 2021
Well, at least BuzzFeed didn’t put the layoff notice in listicle form:
I've been laid off twice and I retrospectively appreciate that both times bosses took me out to break the news personally. We had standards in the aughts! https://t.co/pJfQGOjFpz
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 9, 2021
As in, “spring cleaning”?
Making employees type the password SPRING IS HERE to log into a Zoom where they find out they’re fired is the height of cruelty. https://t.co/KFw8E2z6Fj
— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) March 9, 2021
BuzzFeed is also being criticized for firing international workers with visas:
in addition to every other entirely fucked up thing, huffpo laid off several international employees who depend on the company for their visa — during a pandemic, with no warning. this is tantamount to destroying not just someone’s livelihood but their whole life. i am livid.
— Anna Silman (@annaesilman) March 9, 2021
It’s not a good look, that’s for sure:
is willy wonka in control over there? https://t.co/bgwANlB57U
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) March 9, 2021
Hmm, trying to think of a worse way to tell people that they're part of a round of layoffs and I just can't. https://t.co/pLFmjLqX6y
— Ed Bott (@edbott) March 9, 2021
Man the latest Saw is dark https://t.co/PTdMboYGAs
— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair ? (@senatorshoshana) March 9, 2021
I don't think there's a *good* way to lay off 30% of your writers. I just imagine there has to be a better way. https://t.co/n2Dsg6CbA0
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) March 9, 2021
"spring is here"…go enjoy it, you're fired. https://t.co/fqsuXBn5xT
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) March 9, 2021
Whether this is due to incompetence or pure cruelty, the @HuffPost management is devising new ways to undermine the dignity of workers. https://t.co/KpXhcm6Xb7
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) March 9, 2021
***