Employees flooded the meeting with thumbs down emojis
Executives at Vice Media abruptly concluded a virtual town hall meeting after employees sent waves of thumbs down emojis while they were talking about staff layoffs.
The moment was captured on camera by TikTok user bobbymang666, who uploaded the video on the platform a week ago.
In the video, Vice media chief content officer Cory Haik was talking about the company's current standing when employees began flooding the call with thumbs down emojis.
"It's a very, very, very difficult time in the macro landscape, I think you all know that, I've talked about that a lot," Haik said in the video.
"The Vice publishing business is now going to operate as a smaller, break-even business. It is no longer unprofitable, but it is a much smaller offering."
Vice Media Group chief executive officer Bruce Dixon then interrupted Haik's talk, saying it was "impossible to ignore the emojis" from their end.
"I think we're gonna organise this in a way where we can actually give the information to people who want to receive it in the way it's meant," Dixon said.
"Thank you for your time and your presence in terms of trying to explain that. I think let's progress with our own town halls on this. Thank you for the questions that we have received, and we'll do our best answer those in a form that makes sense for this company."
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Layoff unrest
The situation reflects the growing unrest among the workforce following widespread layoffs in organisations across the world.
Erin Sumner, former talent manager at Facebook and current global director of human resources at DeleteMe, previously advised employers laying off staff to be mindful of the way they do it.
"That is going to be massive moving forward. The optics of that and how you treat everyone is going to be incredibly important," Sumner previously told HRD.
Vice Media announced in late February that it would be laying off several hundred staffers as it ceases publication on its website.
"This decision was not made lightly, and I understand the significant impact it will have on those affected," Dixon told staffers in a memo quoted by CNN.
They join the list of employers across the world that are downsizing this year, including Sony, Omron, UPS, among others.