When you’ve just gotten laid off, the last thing you want to hear is that you can’t cash your last check because of one final payroll screwup. But that’s apparently exactly what’s going on over at MySpace, which laid off over 30% of its staff (or around 480 employees) earlier this month. The company has just asked many of its laid off employees to refrain from cashing their checks due to an error in calculating how much they should be receiving. Employees are getting voicemails from FIM notifying them that the company has issued a stop payment on their checks, and that they can expect an updated check next week.
This isn’t the company’s only blunder during this sensitive time. We’ve heard that that last day for the terminated MySpace employees was chaotic and poorly planned, and that the company hasn’t been very tactful regarding treatment of laid off employees. In the press release announcing the layoffs, CEO Owen Van Natta called the company “bloated”, displaying a surprising lack of respect towards the terminated workers. It gets worse: MySpace has been holding a number of meetings for staff who are still at the company, during which they’ve referred to the recently terminated employees as “fat”. Unfortunately, some of these “fatty” employees have been present at these very meetings — the company has kept a number of terminated employees onboard through the duration of their contract, creating a group of so-called “walking dead” who are being insulted to their faces. Classy.
Of course, MySpace isn’t the first company to botch their layoffs. Earlier this year Microsoft asked some of its laid off employees to send back part of their severance checks. Microsoft’s goof was perhaps more insulting because the company didn’t realize its mistake until after many employees had cashed their checks, so the company actually wanted employees to return money that was already in their bank accounts. MySpace at least caught their mistake early enough to just cancel the old checks and issue new ones, but the company’s lack of sensitivity leaves a lot to be desired.
Image via Biojobblog
If you worked at myspace and have a desire to cofound a new company and live in San Francisco contact me. 415 750 1921
You’re either nuts or that’s the phone number of your old boss at MySpace… which would make you an evil genius.
Or a genius involved in a startup who just got calls from some very highly skilled people who had the unfortunate circumstance of having to work for News Corp the last few years and are now ready to spread their wings on some new projects.
I’ll admit if it was the # of his old boss that would be genius too. ;)
one word = “FAT” who want’s that? not me.
Maybe it’s the number to Owen’s San Francisco pad. :)
lol, no its my home phone number. So I’m a creative with a 100mb connection and lots of servers, I just other passionate developers and biz dev visionaries to assist.
My home address.
1529 C Pershing Dr.
San Francisco, CA 94129.
415 751 1921
yeah, might be, crazy…like a fox.
Ken do you really want me to bring it? http://www.imageco.com/ Your the crazy one.
LOL, sorry message was for Tim Garner. sackless.
Indeed a sad statement on our society when companies are so insensitive and treat people like a resource to be discarded like an old computer.
>> Indeed a sad statement on our society when companies are so insensitive and treat people like a resource to be discarded like an old computer.
You must be a newb.
If Transformers has taught us anything, it is that an old computer should never be discarded. You may live to regret that analogy, Jeff.
Even worse is the fact that six months down the line when things are back to a decent level of sanity, everyone will be dying to work for MySpace and Microsoft in those very departments that do this today, under those very managers, fully knowing that fact. Such is the structure of (capitalist?) industry that jobs are always high in demand and short in supply, and people will work happily for any goon to get a better pay. It takes character to refuse a more tempting job if it is not good, while it is pragmatic to stay employed reasonably. But once in a while, saying no to a financially tempting but intellectually poor job gives you the kind of inner strength that few other things do.
Seems like the ‘fat’ should be trimmed from the top…
HA HA AH HA good one!
lol :)
Where is the like button? {LIKE} LOL
I am fat and still work at MySpace.
Not for long I’m sure. MySpace is a pathetically run company and is all but assured a fairly fast funeral. Good riddance!
Sad but true, that place was run through a combination of incompetence and indifference.
Everyone who followed what was going on at Intermix Media before they all got rich would’ve known this.
These guys are amateurs who got lucky. It was just a matter of time before it exploded.
Maybe they can now go back to spamming people again.
Myspace is the festering herpes sore on the scrotum that is social networking.
This is great…yes, let’s put some more salt on our injuries FIM/Myspace! You had since the 16th to fix this and yet STILL can’t do it right?!
I’ve already called the CA Rapid Response team for the WARN Act and I was told that they were “on it” and looking into the issue of me not getting my checks! HMPF!
Good job, fatty!
That’s really messed up. Who would have guessed such kind of behavior from big companies like Microsoft and MySpace?
I am not surprised at all. Large faceless companies are more likely to proceed with layoffs without a care. This is not a new attitude problem, we are just finally looking at it.
This type of thing is less likely to happen in a small company, or in a local living economy.
Having done smaller companies, I can say yes, they are run much differently and they tend to care about the people within them a whole lot more.
Nobody (including me, a laid off MySpacer) cared about the big corporation’s insensitivity – until it was directed towards us.
I’m just sayin’…
I am skinny so I guess that is why I’m still at MySpace.
This blatant disregard for past employees makes me sick. How about the CEO take a pay cut instead of firing that may employees?
It’s clearly not about the money, it’s about efficiency. Why would they keep the workers on board if they’re paying them for work that doesn’t need to be done, or can be done by others?
Oh come on, he just got hired and already you want him to take a pay cut?! Give him a chance to screw up some more before you start digging into his pockets.
What happens when monkeys run the zoo. In this case, it is self-absorbed, pompous youngsters in way over their heads.
WRONG – FIM payroll has a history of making major errors, and none of that crowd are youngsters.
Exactly, too much bloat there – we can contact SEVEN different HR DIRECTORS and PARTNERS about the checks but not one can figure out what we should be paid, even thought they had 10 days.
They paid for 60 work days instead of 60 calendar. Idiots!
We can contact SEVEN HR directors and partners to ask about it yet they can’t figure out to pay 60 calendar instead of 60 work days?
Well, should that be any suprise? Since the incompetent and VERY bloated HR group handled these layoffs?
How do you have a company of around 1,000 people and have 5 VP level and above people in HR? ( that doesnt even include directors, managers and regular old worker bees..Sounds like they were thinning the wrong herd, as if your looking for fat….you dont have to look much further than HR
Myspace sure knows how to dig its own grave, eh?
If they are going to fade into complete oblivion, they can at least do so with a little class and dignity.
Another case of misinformed Microsoft-bashing.
Microsoft employees that were laid off received their paycheck (almost 100% via direct deposit) as usual. The severance check, as with bonuses, etc. are a separate check. It sounds like the situation with MySpace was one of possibly leaving people destitute until the new payroll check arrived.
And, while it may make for interesting reading to point out Microsoft’s mistake, you fail to mention that they allowed the employees to keep the money. And forgot to mention that it was a small percentage of those that were laid off to boot.
Lastly, the severance package Msft provided, as well as support network, Alumni status (e.g., discounted software) still makes a difficult business decision easier on those affected.
For every blog that provides good, thought-provoking material, there’s always that entry that just seems petty and misinformed.
Microsoft only allowed them to keep the money after we (and, subsequently, many other outlets) pointed out what had happened. I’m not going to give them bonus points for something they should have done in the first place.
I cant see how anyone can defend Microsoft. First the sabotage to adobe – now this crap.
As for Myspace it dosent suprise me that they are flling apart – take one look at facebook and its clear they are not keeping up with the times. Wont be long till they are completly gone, does anyone ever log into myspace these days?
Sorry to hear of all the good people losing their jobs though. Their the ones suffering for others mistakes, and being treated so badly at the same time.
Well it Depends on how you use myspace ! Some people use it to show case their Bands ! You can’t do that on Face Book! Too Bad people have to Bash everything I was really getting to like myspace. My FaceBook is rather lame there are people on ther that i’ve never heard of ! guess there are friends of friends of friends…. Now i really like Twitter It’s like news Bulletins all day !
What really makes me Mad is how Big Companies Will Hire you and then let you go at the drop of the hat ! Now I have no idea how I’m going to pay my rent , car payment and Bills next Month !!!
I’ts the “Fat Executives” that have no idea what its like to live pay check to pay check and then have no more Pay Checks !
M$ is not capable of reciprocating your loyalty.
Don’t say we did not warn you.
M$ is a heartless corp, you are a human being.
Incompatibility issues can come up any time :)
Someone explain to me what the remaining 1,200 people at Myspace do all day? There’s no innovation, no membership subscriptions to manage, etc. Outside of some advertising (which is probably handled by News Corp anyway), why so many people?
Prediction: Myspace layoffs first… LinkedIn and Facebook next.
they don’t do anything. it’s a total case of diminishing returns for each new employee these large companies staff themselves with, where they continue to do it because it allows the top people to approach an asymptote of laziness where there is absolutely no entrepreneurial character whatsoever!
Hey James -
As one of the 500 people laid off, I can tell you that we did a lot. Every single day. I worked my butt off as did my team – they happened to just get rid of our particular silo. Don’t ever make assumptions or accusations such as that. There are people running the marketing programs, putting on events, trafficking ads and executing complicated campaigns. My friends that are left there are doing the work of what 6-8 people would normally do. You’re an ignorant moron who clearly used a thesaurus to write your comment.
as one of the 30% that got laid off, departments were obliterated due to changing strategies. I don’t think any of these strategies make any sense but teams like marketing are usually overheads that are first to go. Unfortunately Marketing did a fantastic job, generated income, but wasn’t on their strategic roadmap and we got cut. On a day to day basis we worked our asses off there – 60 hour work weeks and we were already under new positions from recent restructures that made us do 5 people’s jobs… now those poor people left at the company are doing ALL of our work that we left behind without any handovers. VERY poorly handled by the Exec team and I agree they should have trimmed the fat from the top!
this is what usually happens to all startups. First innovation, then enormous size, then sold piece by piece to wealthy companies, then total mess and chaos. nobody knows what they are doing. more then thousand people doing what? even layoff process is a joke.
and you are right facebook is next. I will give two -three years.
By the way – smart people at myspace left long time ago..
Pathetic. I’d suggest we boycott MySpace, but they’ve done a fantastic job of turning a goldmine into a toilet on their own. The site is an unmitigated relic, and this sort of managerial incompetence is unacceptable from such an iconic company. I feel bad for those laid off and for those who still have to put up with this nonsense, but I also wouldn’t mind seeing this site go away.
well said juan
They could hire Michael Scott to right the ship.
If some of these folks are based in CA, I would definitely bring this up to the EDD. If you’re fired in CA, you have to be paid for ALL of your outstanding wages, vacation and sick pay accrued immediately. If not, the company has to keep paying you.
At least that was the case a few years ago when I took an employer seminar from the EDD. So, taking another week or so to figure it out could become VERY expensive for FIM.
Already mentioned above and I just did wrote to the Rapid Responce team as well.
Now unemployment is delayed as I do not know my final severance check amount & cannot file!
For those who need the link:
http://www.dir....TimePenalty.htm
Serioiusly!? UGH!!! I sent an email to HR and also talked to the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and I told them what happened. Since the check is NSF due to the stop payment we can send that bad check to the District Attorney’s office and file a bad check claim along with a Class Action Lawsuit!
What did the Division of Labor say? Or HR for that matter?
If I have 4 days of payment coming to me (provided I get my check Tuesday) that’s over $1000!
Div said they contacted EDD and looped them in as well as gave me several more phone numbers of WARN Act contacts.
Of course HR failed to reply neither by email nor phone, considering I pointed out CA Labor Law codes they’re breaking. Maybe they had another one of their usual summer hour Fridays where they all leave the office early and don’t do work per usual.
This is a serious violation MS is commiting. Should not we start a forum where decieved and plundered ex-Myspacers could discuss how to defend themselves in a legal way ?
If X-MySpacers wanna chat more with other laid off individuals about this, there is actually a FB forum/group that got started for myspacers to chat. look for MySpace Alumni in groups.
Hey Annoyed…
I also emailed on Friday. I’d love to have your contact #s for EDD.
I found some Rapid Response team email addresses here:
http://www.work.../rapid_main.htm
Please send me an email if you want to talk further about this: creativeshimmer@yahoo.com
just spoke to someone here
http://www.dir....rictOffices.htm
she said waiting time penalty doesn’t apply to severance checks…
That 60 days isn’t severance. That’s required by law. Those are wages. If you look at the story of those who worked at Spotrunner, they were given two options: 1) continue working those 60 days or 2) get paid out. So technically those are wages. The District offices aren’t keen on the WARN Act regulations so I’m not so sure to trust their opinion. I’m hoping to get a hold of the Rapid Response contact that handles the FIM jurisdiction.
Actually, even though US MySpacers were let go on June 16th, they were kept on payroll until June 26th.
That’s exactly the crass insensitivity that Katz showed in the UK office back in February. A week after my engineering team were laid off there was a champagne reception to celebrate how well MySpace were doing internationally…
Not a good time to be a Myspace employee
I’m more surprised people are still getting checks, I’ve always been payed direct into my bank account. Why are checks still being used?
Ever heard of direct deposit???
listen jackass(es), severance & final checks don’t get DD. Get a clue.
Again, where is the LIKE button, ANON like your comment lol
You’re totally clueless. Anon has it right. They wouldn’t do Direct Deposit on Severance/Last Checks
I know that how this was handled is insensitive and insulting to the terminated, and I would be pissed!!! But didn’t they all score relatively decent 2 month severance packages? Believe it or not, it could have been worse, instead of fat, MySpace could have referred to them as waste or detrius.
Wrong doodlebug!
The 2-month severance package is MANDATED BY LAW, since MySpace failed to give would-be-axed employees a 2-month notice.
It is NOT generosity, it’s what they were forced to do by law.
They also did a poor job giving employees severances packages on top of the WARN act 60 day pay. They gave head office employees an additional month of pay for severance while satellite offices only got the 60 day payout in addition to the last 2 weeks + vacation/sick pay. When HR was asked about this, they simply said that different offices got difference packages due to the amount of people getting laid off in difference offices which is total and utter BS
Soon what will remain of myspace are the bands’ profiles
Not only are laid off employees getting voicemails, but emails and letters sent via UPS as well…
Way to trim waste!
Don’t forget: another 420 UPS shipments for the recut checks for the checks they stopped payment on. Oh and possibly more when those of us who know our rights as ex-employees file claims to EDD for willful failure to pay wages and NSF/bad checks when reported to the District Attorney…
Yes, I laughed at the EXPRESS package I got (on Saturday no less) & the wasted $ spent on 400+ of those.
@Mataspace and ex-myspacers:
I just noticed I got a UPS InfoNotice from yesterday morning. It apparently seems that having contacted EDD and the Division of Labor Standard Enforcement has lit a fire under HR’s asses. The packaged was delivered next day air to my address yesterday AM from FIM, but I was not home.
Wouldn’t they want to kind of warn us? And if what I read about is correct, they incorrectly paid us?!
Wow, so on top of the NSF/bad check, the failure to pay wages and the poor accounting, the Rapid Response contact I spoke to said they were supposed to arrange for orientations for us on-site with an EDD representative for them to explain our rights.
Will elaborate more once I hear from the Rapid Response contact handling FIM’s jurisdiction…
Yes, please do!
Just received my amended check! Not a single word about waiting penalty. Shoud that that come as a separate check or they just “forgot” about it ?
Conveniently forgotten…you should file a claim with EDD…
The fact that MySpace laid off exactly 420 employees is no accident. It was done to honor CA SB 420 – the Medical Marijuana Law.
If that’s the case, they should have added a little “something” to our sev pckgs
I just hope Viacom has a plan for the folks left behind when they buy this from Newscorp.
Why else would you kill all your growth centres and cull useful workers and profit centers?
Looks like Rupert and Sumner are getting ready to trade toys.
I still love MySpace!