Spam That Delivers a Pink Slip

alphadogg wrote in with a Network World story that begins: "Last week, a handful of employees at Dekalb Medical Center in Decatur, Ga., received e-mails saying they were being laid off. The subject line read 'Urgent — employment issue,' and the sender listed on the message was at dekalb.org, which is the domain the medical center uses. The e-mail contained a link to a Web site that claimed to offer career-counseling information. And so a few employees, concerned about their employment status and no doubt miffed about being laid off via e-mail, clicked on the link to learn more and unwittingly downloaded a keylogger program that was lurking at the site. Score another one for spammers."

Comments

Diabolical

[jazman_777]

Clever, because we all know our soulless corporations would do that.

Re:Diabolical

[Kjella]

That is not the case in the EU. There you will be expected to slave off to the end of your notice period (or at least part of it). The very few to try something sociopathic (the Dixons salary trigger) have seen the end of the very thick legal stick so people tend not to try this any more.

And the primary reason is that the notice period is much longer. Most jobs have three months notice period, and I don't think any company could afford to just send you home. Besides I think that in itself is a good way to reduce tension - three months is a fairly long time to apply for new jobs and employers like people who can start on short notice if they're in a hurry (since people normally have three months notice). Since it seems US employers like to blindside you and suddenly go "kthxbye - here's your check" I imagine US employees feel rather screwed over.

In two weeks, the chance that you're done with an interview process and ready to start at another company is near zero. That US people have two weeks of free time while I have to work my notice period isn't really much of a help, since so much of the application process is waiting. If you need to relocate, then you can't do that before you have the job, which also stretches it out in time. The upside... well, I don't quite know what the upside but I guess you can have a job on hand and give your boss two weeks notice and change jobs in a flash, but if you're waiting for a good job the notice period goes quickly. To me it certainly doesn't outweigh the disadvantages.

There is of course the issue with awkwardness of working with someone on notice, but it is not really as big a concern as people think. Most lay-offs I've witnessed the people are on good terms with the manager and their co-workers, the decision came from higher up based on profitability/strategic changes. In those cases people tend to just do their job, of course not with great enthusiasm but still. Of course, it's something completely different if you were personally fired for negligence/incompetence/abusive behavior but I haven't been involved in any such process. In those cases they're either put on (paid) suspension or get themselves a sick notice (mostly to avoid the stain on their record). Which might sound niee, but good luck on getting your next job...

Easiest Way To Confirm a Layoff Rumor

[christoofar]

Step 1. Date or make friends with someone in HR systems who runs the Peoplesoft/Oracle/SAP HR system. Help them out with database work (like complex batch jobs).
Step 2. Pay attention to the kinds of queries they need help with.
Step 3. If they begin compiling seniority studies / benefits calculations for projections IN THE FUTURE (red flag!) or estimate retirement dates if your company has a defined pension benefit, see step 4.

Step 4. Put up resume on dice.com and start "disappearing" during lunch to return headhunter phone calls.

Re:Simply ignore it

[mark-t]

I knew someone who was fired where his boss left the message on his answering machine.

He showed up at work the next day like nothing had happened.

Turned out that he knew the labour code required the employer to pay him a minimal length shift (4 hours) just for showing up, even though he was sent home right away, as the employer could not prove that the employee had ever received the message that he was not supposed to come in.

The moral of the story is that if you are going to let someone go, don't rely on _any_ sort of message conveyance system to deliver the message, talk directly to the employee.