While there may be no such thing as a good layoff, several dismissed employees are taking to social media to vent their anger and frustration about particularly bad ones, Marketwatch reported. 

A prominent example is Brittany C. Pietsch, who went viral for filming her firing and sharing it on TikTok. Another person recently posted a TikTok video about her getting hired and fired in fewer than two weeks.

"The bottom line is there's no such thing as a good layoff," said David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc, a Connecticut-based HR consulting company in an interview with Marketwatch. But companies that ignore best practices for letting an employee go do so at their own peril, he said. “There are [situations] that go really bad.”

One such situation is that of online mortgage lender Better.com's dismissal of 900 employees via Zoom in 2021. CEO Vishal Garg told them that they were "part of the unlucky group that is being laid off," and added, "Your employment here is terminated effective immediately."

When the news of the layoffs went public, Garg apologized. "I am deeply sorry and am committed to learning from this situation and doing more to be the leader that you expect me to be," he said at the time.

Pietsch’s post got the attention of her former employer’s CEO, who posted on X that the TikTok video was "painful for me to watch" and that "[w]e try to fire perfectly. In this case, clearly we were far from perfect." Separately, a company spokesperson told MarketWatch earlier this month that Pietsch's dismissal was not a layoff, but a firing. “We regularly review team members' performance and let go of those who aren't right for our team," the company said. Marketwatch reported that Pietsch couldn't be reached immediately for comment.

A more humane way in which to handle a dismissal begins with the method of communication, experts told Marketwatch. An in-person discussion is ideal, not one via video or phone.

"You should select the richest medium," said Andres Lares, managing partner of the Shapiro Negotiations Institute, a company that specializes in business training, in an interview with Marketwatch. Keep it brief, too, he advised; "Delivering bad news very slowly just stretches out how painful it is," he said.

Experts say that employers should also back up anything discussed in writing, as the terminated employee may get emotional and may not pay attention to the terms of the termination, such as severance—which an employer is under no obligation to provide—and insurance.

There is also no legal requirement for an employer to tell the employee why he or she is being dismissed, California employment attorney Laura Reathaford told Marketwatch. Also, the more an employer reveals to an employee, the more trouble it can lead to in terms of a potential lawsuit, explained David Siegel, a New York attorney with Grellas Shah LLP.

Karen McLean, chair of the social work department at West Connecticut State University, lost a government position in social work two decades ago and still recalls how badly the situation was handled by her employer; she was kept waiting at a central office to receive the news.

But the manner in which her dismissal was conducted would not have made a difference in the end, she said. "Either way, I would have felt angry."