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Shinyung Oh: Back in the News.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:41 AM - By Elie Mystal

Shinyung Oh.jpgA couple of stories have come out recently, retelling the grand tale of Shinyung Oh’s Paul Hastings departure email.

The email is, of course, a classic. But the story is being re-told, again and again, in the context of the layoffs that are taking place all across the country. Shinyung Oh was on the Today show, and recently she was featured in the Los Angeles Times, in a story about the phenomenon of farewell emails:

“It took me a long time to write it,” said [Jason] Shugars, 34, who left Google to become director of ad operations for the music streaming Web site Imeem. “I didn’t want to send out a stale ‘good working with you, please reach me here’ e-mail. Who wants that?”

That’s a good question these days, now that thousands of people are finding themselves with pink slips.

The farewell e-mail suddenly has become commonplace, a new art form in the electronic age.

The Associated Press also had a story, warning people about what they say on the way out the door:

Truly angry flameouts are a rarity for that reason — most people understand they will whip through the ether at breakneck speed…. Experts warn against real displays of such anger over concerns that it could hurt a future job search. Many caution against even a hint negativity.

Oh’s memorable email was referenced in both stories.

But Shinyung Oh herself doesn’t think this focus on farewell emails is particularly helpful. Some of her thoughts, after the jump.

As many of you know, Oh has her own blog, Because you never know… She was contacted by the Associated Press for its story, but she declined to comment. According to her, here’s why:

I declined to speak to her because I thought the media was focusing too much on how employees are reacting to layoffs instead of highlighting the unethical manners in which companies are handling layoffs. I asked her to focus on what the companies are doing, and she responded that she would be “happy to talk… about that as well.” Well, sure enough, the article comes out and it’s only about employees and their departure emails. Good thing I declined to speak to her.

From where we sit, Oh seems to have a good point. The human interest angles to “recession stories” often focus on how laid off people are “handling” being laid off. As if “it’s crappy” isn’t a sufficient answer. But the mainstream media seems to gloss over the humans actually conducting the layoffs.

Maybe there is a general sense that there is no “right way” to conduct massive layoffs. But on this blog alone we’ve seen numerous companies handle the issue in strikingly different ways. Some firms really do seem to be doing it better than others. Some firms stonewall the press, hide the facts, and act like their former employees were holding the firm back. Other firms get all the facts out and give laid-off employees the dignity of telling the truth.

Look, it is difficult to come up with yet another angle on the global financial crisis (trust me on this). But let’s try to keep our eyes on the ball. A fiery farewell email is funny (and I’ll post that within a nanosecond of receiving a good one), but terrible communication when laying off hundreds of employees is just as important and newsworthy.

‘Farewell’ takes new tone [Detroit News]
For laid off workers, that oh-so-satisfying, flaming, final e-mail can come back to bite you [Associated Press]
Layoff Coverage [Because You Never Know]

Earlier: Breaking: A Dramatic Farewell Email (And proof of Paul Hastings layoffs.)

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