RadioShack Uses E-Mail to Drop 400 Staffers

RadioShack on Aug. 10 announced plans to reduce its workforce by roughly 400 to 450 positions, and those plans became a reality on Tuesday. However, the firm’s usage of e-mail to deliver the news is garnering a media storm of criticism, The Wall Street Journal reports.

About 400 RadioShack staffers employed at its Forth Worth, Texas headquarters were e-mailed an electronic pink slip Tuesday morning, alerting them of their immediate dismissal, according to the Journal.

“The workforce reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated,” the message read, the Journal reports.

RadioShack spokeswoman Kay Jackson defended the electronics retailer’s action by saying that workers had been notified of the reduction and that the news would be delivered electronically in earlier staff meetings, according to the Journal. Affected workers were also given the chance to ask questions about the move before the announcement on an internal company website, the Journal reports.

The workers who lost their jobs received compensation to the tune of one to three weeks’ pay for each year they were with the company, up to four months for employees paid by hourly wage, and as many as 36 weeks for people who earned base pay of more than $90,000 a year, according to the Journal.

RadioShack has come upon tough financial times in recent days, closing almost 500 retail locations, merging distribution facilities and offering less-popular merchandise at discounted rates, the Journal reports.

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