Informed of redundancy via email

missis_amber

Head of HR emailed each member of my ream individually today with a scanned letter attached saying that we were being made redundant and to come to Head Office for an individual consultation. Senior management work at Head office so I accept they might not have been able to do it face to face but a phone call prior to the letter would have been courteous right? Feel very demotivated. I have been made redundant before but it was handled so differently (& better).

SW17

Not nice, though not sure they have any legal obligation to do it in person. However, if they have made / are making more than 20 people redundant within a 90 day period (not necessarily just your team, but within the entire legal entity that employs you), they are obliged to engage in collective consultation. It wouldn't necessarily change the outcome, but might impact the result if you or colleagues took them to tribunal and they had not followed the correct procedures.

TBagpuss

I can understand how you feel. However - the advantage of e-mail is that it goes to everyone at the same time. Had they phoned, they presumably could not have spoken to everyone at once so you or others might potentially have found out from colleagues . It may also be that some people would prefer to hear by e-mail or letter rather than over the phone having to say something in reply.

Not saying you are wrong to feel as you do, just that there may have been reasons why they felt this was the best way to tell you and others.

Do check out the requirements for consultation etc ahead of your meeting at head office so you know where you stand and what your rights are

dale_cotterill

Been done like that before. Emails were sent out at 6.30 on a Friday night so everyone got them at the same time when they walked in on Monday morning.

Most likely cause I can only presume is that no-one had the bottle to do it in person or real time (conference call or similar)