Fortunately, we talked to HR lawyer Kirk Nemer of Career Protection and he told us how to pull off cutting your workforce without getting sued:

• Bone up on employment laws. It's a good idea to ask laid-off employees to sign a waiver or release promising not to sue, but be careful giving them deadlines. The OWBPA Act stipulates that if an employee is over 40, they get a minimum of 21 days to consider signing the release and another 7 days to change their mind after they do. If a company cuts a group of employees, each employee gets 45 days to consider the release. Force them to sign any sooner, and the waiver's no good. A reminder: In California there's the WARN Act, which requires companies laying off more than 50 employees to give them 60 days notice.
  
  
• Pay out severance according to title and length of service. Only. Don't play favorites. Be objective and use length of service and title as your guide. One of Nemer's clients was a director, but his company only prepared severance packages for vice presidents and regional managers. When the company canned Nemer's guy, it gave him a regional manager's severance because it was cheaper. Now he's suing.
  
  
• Don't treat laid off employees like criminals. Laid-off employees do not all need to be escorted from the building by burly, armed guards before 3 p.m. or else. That kind of confrontational stance "sets up a battle," says Nemer -- a legal battle.
  
  
• Don't set layoff traps. Nemer tells us that one easy way to drive laid-off employees to their lawyers is to lie to them. One of his clients who'd been with her company 14 years got a note one day from her supervisor asking her to attend a new project meeting. When she did, she found the meeting room vacant but for her boss and an HR rep. They canned her on the spot and then security escorted her out of the building as a part of a general layoff. Now she's one of Nemer's clients, suing her old employer just months after getting a standing ovation during an all hands meeting.
  
  
• Be clear to blame the economy, not the employee. Admit that the company has hit hard times and that the layoff has nothing to do with the employee's performance. Do not lie or make excuses. Laying off one of Nemer's clients, one company HR rep asked for her resignation. She refused and asked what she'd done wrong. "Nothing" said the rep, who then admitted Nemer's client was part of a general layoff. Another of Nemer's client's only joined a company after months of recruiting. Then, just yet a few more months later, they told him the company didn't have a role for him anymore. "You recruited me for this role!" Nemer's client told the CEO. Lies, damned lies. They'll get your name at the top of a double-spaced PDF.

See Also:
Think You're Going To Be Laid Off? Sign Up For A Class NOW

Now our government has bailed out Citigroup. Next probably will be the bailout of the big three automakers. Remember the big three automakers execs flew to washington on private jets costing aproximately $20,000 each when they could have flown first class for aproximately $800 to beg for money.

Wonder what the unemployment office would think if you drove up to file your claim driving a BMW? We poor people cannot even get unemployment until our severance pay runs out and then when we get unemployment we still have to pay taxes on it to pay these execs salaries.

Are you sick and tired of this? Then don’t just sit there and say “I can’t do anything” and do something. Write your congressman today.

Below is a list of top executives at AIG and their salaries. Click on the image for a better view.

TiVo, the DVR maker is also interested in laying off some of its staff, according to Silicon Alley Insider. The exact number and timeline of the layoffs has not been disclosed by the company in its SEC filing. But the company has made it clear that the layoffs will happen:

On November 18, 2008, we commenced a plan to reduce our operational expenses, primarily through a reduction in headcount, as we manage through the challenges presented by a difficult economic climate and a rapidly evolving retail consumer market.

We expect to incur pre-tax charges of approximately $1 million, primarily for employee-related severance benefits and out-placement costs. We expect to record these charges in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 ending January 31, 2009. Substantially all of these charges will result in cash expenditures.

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

Akamai, the content delivery network has announced that it would be laying off 110 employees or about 7% of its workforce, according to an SEC Filing. The company expects to incur approximately $6.0 million in cash expenses due to these changes as a result of severance and similar personnel-related expenses:

As a result of these cost-cutting measures, the Company expects to incur aggregate restructuring charges and other costs of approximately $4.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. These anticipated charges consist of approximately $3.8 million for severance and similar personnel-related expenses and approximately $0.2 million in other costs. These costs are expected to be partially offset by a net reduction in non-cash stock-based compensation of $0.8 million, reflecting a modification to certain stock-based awards previously granted to the affected employees. Additionally, the Company expects to recognize a loss on sublease income of approximately $2.5 million related to certain leased facilities. The Company expects to incur total cash expenditures of approximately $6.0 million in connection with these cost-reduction measures.

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

Industry watcher Dan Rayburn says the cuts are across the company's various divisions. Akamai is still hiring for some positions in its new advertising service group, according to Rayburn.

Akamai detailed the charges it'll incur:

As a result of these cost-cutting measures, the Company expects to incur aggregate restructuring charges and other costs of approximately $4.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. These anticipated charges consist of approximately $3.8 million for severance and similar personnel-related expenses and approximately $0.2 million in other costs. These costs are expected to be partially offset by a net reduction in non-cash stock-based compensation of $0.8 million, reflecting a modification to certain stock-based awards previously granted to the affected employees. Additionally, the Company expects to recognize a loss on sublease income of approximately $2.5 million related to certain leased facilities. The Company expects to incur total cash expenditures of approximately $6.0 million in connection with these cost-reduction measures.

See Also:
Amazon's CDN Won't Hurt Akamai Or Limelight -- Not Yet, At Least
Akamai Beats Q3, Guidance Weak, Stock Jumps
Akamai Picks Up Ad Targeting Firm Acerno For $95 Million

On November 18, 2008, we commenced a plan to reduce our operational expenses, primarily through a reduction in headcount, as we manage through the challenges presented by a difficult economic climate and a rapidly evolving retail consumer market.

We're interpreting "a rapidly evolving consumer market" to mean the company is getting clobbered by cheap alternative DVR solutions built into cable and satellite set-top boxes.

We called Tivo to ask how many layoffs are in the works and haven't heard back yet. But it's probably not too many: The company says in its filing it will take a pre-tax charge of just $1 million for severance benefits and out-placement.

TiVo reports Q3 results next Tuesday. We suppose they'll outline some of their cuts then.

See Also:
Another Pointless TiVo Feature: Order Pizza Via Remote
Big Win For Cable: Judge OKs Tivo-In-The-Clouds

Employees got a memo today from CEO Michael Dell, stating to cut the companies costs and increase profit this quarter.

Part of Dell’s scheme asks workers to take up to five days off without pay sometime within the next three months. The company also instituted a global hiring freeze, is offering voluntary severance packages, cutting travel budgets, and sacking temporary and contract employees.

We’re taking action in this fourth quarter to reduce costs and improve Dell’s long term competitiveness in a time of economic uncertainty, said Dell spokesman David Frink.

It’s a common pattern now that even technology companies along with financial institutions are slaying of it’ most important assets(Human Resource) like anything. Of course, just like PC market share, Dell plays second fiddle to Hewlett-Packard in mass sacking. HP announced in September it would lay off 24,600 jobs worldwide as it merges the massive IT services organization EDS with its own existing massive IT service organization.

[via ZDNET]

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

Dell said the company will consider a range of options to reduce its costs, including a hiring freeze, cutting contract employees, severance packages, the five-day furlough and, if necessary, more layoffs.

[via ZDNet]

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

NY is going to get hit pretty hard with the layoffs and then they are going to close the old Right Media office since that is very expensive real estate and the office is basically empty. Something like 75% of the people who worked for right media pre-acquisition have left the company (at least on the tech side. I don't know anyone on business).

This is obviously just speculation at this point. But it's plausible:

• If our source is correct about all the departures, there's no point in paying rent on an office that's half empty.
  
• Including the Right Media location on 2 Park Avenue, Yahoo currently has 3 offices in New York -- (the others are a HotJobs office on 18th Street) and a sales office in midtown. That's about two offices too many.
• Former Right Media CEO Mike Walrath has already vacated his space in the old office, after moving to the Bay Area this fall.
• The old Right Media office is ugly.

See Also:
Jerry's Promise To Yahoos: I'll Fire You Before The Holidays
Jerry Yang's Layoff Memo
Yahoos Sweat: Will We Get That Same Fat Microsoft Severance?

Til then, Jerry says he's planning several long nights of the soul:

We have consolidation and organizational corrections to make. In the long term, we will look at our whole portfolio and are now asking ourselves in each case if we need to be in this business. We're asking ourselves-should we sell it or should we shut it down?

We're glad to hear Jerry sounds so ready to make hard decisions. But fool me once, shame on...

Unfortunately, Jerry's talk sounds too much like his failed "no sacred cows" quest of 2007 for us to get too excited about Yahoo finally getting back on the right track. For example, we think Yahoo should sell the whole ad network business and focus on selling its own inventory, but given all the acquisitions it has made over the past two years, this seems unlikely.

See Also:
Yahoos Sweat: Will We Get That Same Fat Microsoft Severance?
Yahoo Firings In Perspective: Company Shrinking To Q2 Size