Hey jsmith I missed you at work today

Tim Cavanaugh | August 31, 2006

Radio Shack shows it's still on the cutting edge by taking labor relations to the next level. The company has laid off 400 employees via email:

Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, a spokeswoman said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.

Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, said he had never heard of such a large number of terminated employees being notified electronically. He said it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees.

What the mainstream media isn't telling you about this story: Because Radio Shack used a Realistic® email client, the messages were never delivered, and thus nobody has actually been fired.