US firm sacks 80 Indian staff during five-minute Google Meet call

Another troubling story has emerged from the IT sector. A US company sacked around 80 Indian employees during a Google Meet call that lasted just five minutes. As news of this spread on social media, people were left stunned. The company first called its employees for a five-minute meeting, and in that same meeting they were terminated with immediate effect. Many are now questioning the company's conduct.

An employee shared details of the entire episode in a post on Reddit. In the post, they wrote that they had been let go on a Google Meet call. Describing their situation, the employee wrote further that until the previous day they had been part of the customer support team of a US bank. For work-related reasons, the company had asked them to work from home the day before. They were working the 6:30 pm shift, and at 9:30 pm the company called them onto Google Meet and told them that the entire Indian customer service team had been let go.

The employee wrote further that all 80 employees were gone. A single five-minute call had affected 80 families. They wrote that it upsets them greatly to work for companies that can sack them at any time, and that they now regret putting in so much effort at work. They also said they had no idea how they would find a new job, calling the whole situation terrifying.

Many people responded to the post on Reddit criticising the company's conduct. Many also expressed sympathy for the employees who suddenly lost their jobs. When one user asked about the company's behaviour and the reason for the sudden layoffs, the employee said the company was not getting the output it wanted from its Indian team, which was why the layoffs were carried out.

The employee also said that the company gave no compensation after the sudden termination. Those who had worked there for a year were being given only 15 days' salary.