Uber Uses Zoom App to Fire More Than 3,500 Workers Over COVID-19 Economic Woes

The 23% unemployment is only expected to grow as companies continue laying off workers amid business closures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. And these days, the same technology helping people work from home is also being used to fire them.

One top executive from Uber recently used the video conferencing platform to inform over 3,500 workers that they're being laid off because business is down by over half. 

"We had to do this in a way that allowed us to tell you as quickly as possible so that you did not hear it from the rumor mill," said Ruffin Chevaleau, head of Uber's Phoenix Center of Excellence, in the leaked video.

She began to choke up while delivering the grim news. 

"I know that this is incredibly hard to hear," she said. "No one wants to be on a call like this."

In a document filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Uber said lay offs would hit 3,700 full-time workers due to “economic challenges and uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Inside Edition showed the video recording to business etiquette expert Thomas Farley for his opinion.

"This was certainly a very efficient way of doing it but it was definitely not the most empathetic," Farley said.

Uber said in a statement, "It's never easy or uncomplicated to let employees go, and that's only been more true during this unprecedented period."

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