How do I fire thee? Let me count the ways. (Sorry, Elizabeth Barret Browning)

By now you have surely heard of the 900 employees fired via Zoom. Well, it’s a management trend encouraged by technology advances, nothing more.

The tech revolution has outstripped management evolution.

In the mid-1980s, a friend and his colleagues at the South African office of a multinational fax machine company were fired by fax sent from head office.

In 2001, I saw an email in which the owners of an IT company informed employees that their services were no longer required.

Then, in mid-2003, many of the 2,000 employees at an insurance company in England were sacked via a text message on their mobile phones. The text message linked recipients to a voice message: You are being made redundant with immediate effect.

And now, in late 2021, 900 USA employees were fired while on a video call with their fearless CEO.

From fax to e-mail to instant text message to video call, you’re fired.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.