Comcast fires 500 after claiming tax cut = new jobs

[47of74]

Ugh

Quote

Comcast reportedly fired about 500 salespeople shortly before Christmas, despite claiming that the company would create thousands of new jobs in exchange for a big tax cut.

Comcast apparently tried to keep the firings secret while it lobbied for the tax cut that was eventually passed into law by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President Trump in late December. The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed the Comcast firings this week in an article based on information from an anonymous former employee, Comcast documents, and other sources in the company.

The former employee who talked to the Inquirer "could not be identified because of a nondisclosure agreement as part of a severance package," the article said. The Inquirer headline notes that Comcast was able to implement the firings "quietly," avoiding any press coverage until this week.

Ars asked Comcast today if all 500 fired employees had to sign those nondisclosure agreements, but we didn't receive an answer. We also asked why the firings were necessary given that the tax cut was supposed to create more Comcast jobs, and we asked if Comcast has specific plans to create jobs in other areas.

I think the first question people need to ask after news of a company giving a tax cut bonus is if anyone else is getting laid off at the same time or shortly thereafter.

[Cartmann99]

4 hours ago, 47of74 said:

The former employee who talked to the Inquirer "could not be identified because of a nondisclosure agreement as part of a severance package," the article said. The Inquirer headline notes that Comcast was able to implement the firings "quietly," avoiding any press coverage until this week.

Have I been living in a cave? I've never heard of people having to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to get a severance package. Also, firing people right before Christmas is a really crappy thing to do. 

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

Have I been living in a cave? I've never heard of people having to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to get a severance package. Also, firing people right before Christmas is a really crappy thing to do. 

I don't know about nondisclosure agreements, but one of my husband's temp jobs (when the economy tanked) required soon to be ex-employees to sign a paper agreeing not to sue the company in order to get severence pay. They hired a big group of people, promised at least a year of work, and then fired everyone 5 months later. It was a big mess. I never heard what became of the lawsuit from the folks who didn't take the severance pay.