The Viciousness of Corporate America Continues
By: Alejandro Diaz
Tags: Employment, Discrimination, Covid 19, Business, Equality

On March 18 of this year, my coworkers and I got a nationwide notice from the company headquarters that all offices were to be closed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus and that we would be working remotely. We were anticipating this due to all the news updates about the deadly disease, but it was still difficult to believe that this was actually happening. We all rushed to pack our things and headed home with laptops in hand.

From the outset, we got video updates from our CEO. She stated that our health and safety were her priorities and promised that the firm would not let anyone go; there would be no layoffs during the pandemic. She came across as empathetic, kind, and transparent. She did a great job of putting us at ease. So we all fell into our remote routines and did the best we could under the horrific circumstances.

Then the police murdered George Floyd and protests erupted all around us. Our CEO once again stepped up to the plate. She immediately sent an email and set up a firm-wide video chat. She told us that she was appalled by the senseless murder and was determined to do her part to end racism and discrimination in our organization. Once again, we were all put at ease and were very impressed by her transparent and empathetic leadership. She kept in close touch throughout the unrest and even started a task force primarily made up of high-ranking African-American staff to address systemic bias in our workplace. It seemed as if the firm was finally going to seriously embark on righting many racial wrongs within its ranks. I had never personally experienced such action in any place I had ever worked. It was refreshing to see.

Unfortunately, we had to change captains in the middle of the voyage. Our then-CEO’s tenure was previously scheduled to end this year, so a new chief executive took over in the summer. He let us all know that he strongly supported the outgoing CEO’s mandates and that he would stay the course. I for one was very sorry to see our previous CEO go; I didn’t quite trust this new guy.

Not too long after his ascension, the layoffs began. First, it was the IT department in August. We were told that this was planned from before the pandemic. The next month, the executive assistants were notified that there would be restructuring and that some of them would be laid off as well. But the real bombshell for me, and many others, was yet to come.

On the first Tuesday of October, the company announced an impromptu early morning video call for all employees nationwide to attend. The meeting lasted a mere ten minutes. The upper brass notified us that they were going to lay off scores of staff. They told us the people affected would receive emails of their termination within the next couple of hours, and then they abruptly ended the call.

I quickly video-conferenced my team so we could support each other after this disturbing announcement. Right in the middle of our team meeting, I received the email notifying me that I was laid off, effective in a couple of weeks. In real time, I let my staff know that I had received the dreaded notice. They were shocked and upset. I wished them all the best of luck and told them it had been a pleasure working with them. I’ve heard of other staff that also received their termination emails while on video calls. What a horrible way to find out that your life has just been turned upside down. I quickly got off the meeting and told my wife what had occurred. She was also working remotely. To have her close at this time was very comforting.

At 12:00 noon, right after the Tuesday morning massacre, the CFO sent an email basically stating, “Mission accomplished.” It was a very strange dynamic. There was never a real explanation as to why we were chosen to be let go. It was obvious that the gatekeepers of every department were given free rein to decide who would be affected. A couple of days later I found out that all the African-American women in our particular unit were laid off, leaving only one Black man on the entire team. Aside from myself, another Latino was also laid off. To avoid allegations of racism and/or discrimination, the firm used the excuse that “positions” were eliminated, but ironically, not one white staff member was affected by the layoff, even though many of them shared the same job titles as those who were just let go. I’m not sure if this was the manner in which the previous CEO would have handled this, but the new one made a clear statement: no one’s job was safe and Black lives didn’t matter that much after all.

The recent firing of African-American ethical AI researcher Timnit Gebru from Google has called into question the promise from corporate America to fully support their Black employees and address systemic/institutionalized racism in the workplace. Declarations of corporate “allyship” abounded after the world was shocked by the senseless murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers. Many firms spoke out against this ghastly action and promised to make things better in their institutions for their Black employees. But that was short-lived. Ms. Gebru’s case is by far the most well known, but this is happening all across our country as companies feel the need to rid themselves of employees. Some because their bottom lines are affected by Covid-19 and the associated economic downturn, and others to please shareholders, even though they’ve made record profits during the pandemic, as the Washington Post points out. Black and Latino workers are too often the first to feel the brunt of such actions.

A couple of very dangerous trends are in effect. Companies are growing antsy and are no longer concerned for the safety of their employees or our country. They’re showing civic-duty fatigue. It also looks like vindictive, racist shot-callers are using this opportunity to get rid of People of Color and those who they disagree with politically. Many of us who were let go were vocal proponents of the firm’s new sponsored initiative of ending racial bias within the company. The gatekeeper in our department was by no means a fan of this movement, so he got rid of those of us who were advocating for it. Another troubling fact is that the majority of team members who were dismissed were on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder. In other words, those folks who earned the least were laid off first. Not one manager was let go. They made sure that they took care of those who were part of the “club.” To give the appearance of objectivity, the company’s HR department repeated empty statements, such as “tough decisions had to be made” and “we eliminated positions, not people.” All a crock of bull.

This is happening all around us — mass corporate layoffs in the middle of this horrendous pandemic as well as blatant acts of discrimination. Very soon, workers will be forced to make the hard choice between staying safe at home and working remotely or having to physically work on site and risk possibly catching the virus to keep their jobs. As has always been the case, People of Color will disproportionately feel the impact.

Many of these big companies have enough money in their coffers to weather this unpredictable national disaster without displacing workers, but they choose not to. The federal government should have stepped in from the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown and asked large corporations to not disenfranchise any employees to avoid dire future consequences, death, illness, bankruptcies, and homelessness during a pandemic.

Layoffs also led to people losing their employer-based health insurance. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that approximately 2 to 3 million Americans lost their employer-based coverage between March and September of 2020. Mass dismissals make things vastly worse in the middle of a crisis of this magnitude. Germany, for example, has discouraged companies from laying people off and even paid said companies to keep workers on the payroll during the Covid-19 pandemic. They made a clear choice to be proactive, not reactive, in support of their citizenry. In contrast, our country and many business leaders have chosen to do nothing. Corporate America has shown once again that it is incapable of doing the right thing for Americans in a crisis. Instead, they’re happy to continue adding more fuel to the fire.

There was a time not too long ago when American companies actually showed great pride in being vested in their employees, their communities, and their country. We’re in the middle of a global disaster, a pandemic that still rages. This is the time for corporations to stand with the rest of us, so we can all survive this calamity.