Weight Watchers fires thousands of employees over Zoom: Report
Audio-only Zoom call reportedly lasted only a few minutes
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WW International -- formerly called Weight Watchers -- reportedly fired thousands of its employees last week over Zoom, according to recent reports.
Last week, an anonymous post on TheLayoff.com claimed thousands of WW service providers were laid off.
On Friday, HuffPost reported the audio-only call lasted just a few minutes.
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According to the website, the manager who fired the employees read from a script and had everyone else muted so they couldn’t ask questions. Some employees who were fired had even worked at the company for “decades,” HuffPost reported.
By the weekend, employees’ emails had reportedly been shut down and they no longer had access to WW employee websites.
WW International -- formerly Weight Watchers -- reportedly laid off thousands of employees last week. (iStock)
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According to a report by DailyMail.com, some employees claim that up to 4,000 workers were fired in the call.
“As the COVID-19 crisis has forced the closure of our physical studios around the world, we have had to make some difficult decisions that have directly impacted the lives of some of our valued team members,” the company said in a statement emailed to FOX Business. “We thank them for all of their efforts on behalf of our members during their years of service.”
The company did not confirm to FOX Business how many employees were laid off in the Zoom call.
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“With the accelerated growth of our digital offerings in both our WW app and the launch of Virtual Workshops, we are taking this time to look at our real estate footprint as we begin to safely and cautiously re-open our WW Studios,” the company added in its statement. “These are challenging but necessary moves to best prepare us for the future as we continue to support our members and meet them where they need us most.”
Last week, MarketWatch reported WW had planned to lay off workers worldwide in order to cut costs because of the coronavirus pandemic.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WW | WW INTERNATIONAL INC. | 1.72 | +0.09 | +5.52% |