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A voluntary layoff? In this economy? The mass layoff meat grinder is out in full force this week. In just the past couple of days, thousands of workers have fallen victim to job cuts at Amazon, Target, Paramount, CBS, and other large companies. YouTube has also quietly introduced voluntary exit packages for employees who are willing to be laid off with severance benefits, according to an internal memo first reported by Alex Heaths Sources AI newsletter. Adding words like opt in or voluntary in front of separation, retirement, and severance packages is the new way to soft-launch layoffs, in the hope of making the idea of losing one’s job slightly more palatable to employees. (Also, why not just call these things what they are: buyouts?) These programs are not new, and saw a resurgence of popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a few months extra pay, healthcare coverage, and other employment services such as career counseling, to sugarcoat what is, in most cases, bad news. Not everyone is buying the idea. Framing a layoff as a “Voluntary Career Transition” is wild, one X user wrote in response to news of potential layoffs ahead at video game developer Massive Entertainment. As they enter a period of restructuring, the Ubisoft subsidiary is instead asking staff to volunteer for career transition. Impressive word salad for a severance package, one X user replied. Next up: Mandatory Sabbatical of Indefinite Length,” another quipped. The voluntary nature of some buyout programs gives employees the illusion of control over their fate. The reality of opt-in layoffs is psychological and emotional outsourcing, Holly Howard, founder of Ask Holly How, a culture-first business consultancy, told Fast Company. It’s a bit of a PR strategy to avoid what might be a complicated and negative narrative and instead transfer that burden onto the employees themselves. In some cases, it works well. For those with jobs already lined up, coming up to retirement, or already halfway out the door, it can be seen as the lesser of two evils. For those who choose not to opt in, however, the writing is on the wall. They run the risk of ultimately being laid off down the line, but without any of those benefits to ease the blow. Anytime a company offers this, Ive learned to take it, one Reddit user responded in the r/Layoffs subreddit to the news of YouTubes voluntary exit packages. One company I had did this, and I didnt take it. Then they started doing rolling layoffs without severance, and it was incredibly toxic working there while waiting for the axe. Another suggested: They are great for the current employees, but these are still people without a job added to the unemployed market. They continued: Voluntary or involuntary, unemployment is still bad. More than 1 in 4 workers without jobs have been unemployed for at least half a year. That number is the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic, and a level typically only seen during periods of economic turmoil, The Washington Post reported.Each day brings more layoff news. For those clinging desperately to their jobs, voluntary exit packages may be about as reassuring as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its certainly been a spooky week for the Walt Disney Co. and Google. The two corporations are in the midst of a carriage dispute that has resulted in a blackout of Disneys networks on Google-owned YouTube TV, leaving viewers unable to access popular channels including ESPN and ABC. Disney began notifying viewers on October 23 about the dispute and warning that its networks could be removed from the pay-TV streaming platform. All of that came to a head in the last 48 hours as the two parties failed to come to an agreement on a new deal, and YouTube TV began removing Disneys networks about 30 minutes before the previous carriage deal expired at midnight Eastern time. One area of contention between the two seems to be around pricing, with Disney asking for rate hikes that Google isnt agreeing to. A number of YouTube TV subscribers complained on social media about having their access cut, with some noting how the situation is reminiscent of the contract battles that have long plagued cable television. I’ll never forget how liberating it was in 2018 to cut the cord & subscribe to YouTube TV, John Martin, a radio host on sports station 92.9 FM ESPN, wrote on X, adding that “Nothing good ever lasts, kids. I wish cable just figured it out,” one X user wrote. “[This] should be the time they try to win others back but basically are like, hold my beer. hah, another user wrote. Still another said: I just switched, and now I have to find ANOTHER streaming platform.” Companies play the blame game Reached for comment, Google directed Fast Company to a statement released by YouTube on Thursday. Last week, Disney used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers, the post on YouTubes blog read. Theyre now following through on that threat, suspending their content on YouTube TV. This decision directly harms our subscribers while benefiting their own live TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo. The post continued to say that while the situation is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for YouTube TV subscribers, the company said it was urging Disney to work constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV. If an agreement wasnt reached and the content remained off YouTube TV, Google said it would offer subscribers a $20 credit. Disney, meanwhile, is pointing the finger at Google, accusing the tech giant of using its market dominance to eliminate the competition and undercut the industry-standard terms that it says it has already negotiated with other distributors. Unfortunately, Googles YouTube TV has chosen to deny their subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC, a Disney spokesperson said. Without a new agreement in place, their subscribers will not have access to our programming, which includes the best lineup in live sportsanchored by the NFL, NBA, and college football, with 13 of the top 25 college teams playing this weekend. On Friday, a memo was shared with Disney Entertainment and ESPN employees from Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Berg and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, regarding YouTube TV. The memo, obtained by Fast Company, reiterated a similar sentiment as the statement. The three executives wrote that Googles actions make clear how little regard they have for their customers and are consistent with an attitude which has been prevalent throughout our negotiationsYouTube TV and its owner, Google, are not interested in achieving a fair deal with us. The bottom line is that our channels are extremely valuable, and we can only continue to program them with the sports and entertainment viewers love most if we stand our ground against tactics that threaten the integrity of our business and the value of our creative work, the note concluded. Which channels are being blacked out? The networks impacted and being removed from YouTube TV include ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, SEC Network, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, ABC News Live, ACC Network, and Localish, as well as ESPN Deportes, Baby TV Espaol, and Nat Geo Mundo for those with the Spanish plan. This isnt the first time that corporations have butted heads over the distribution of television content, nor is it the first time that YouTube TV has gotten into disputes with other entertainment giants. Paramount Global (now Paramount Skydance), Fox Corporation, and NBCUniversal all recently battled with the streaming service, though they were able to eventually reach a deal to avert a blackout. YouTube TV also previously dropped Univision and other TelevisaUnivision-owned networks in September after the two parties could not come to an agreement. Meanwhile, Disney and Charter Communications had a public dispute over a renewal in 2023, though the two parties were able to resolve the problem to avert a blackout. The impact on subscribers Experts in the industry said those who suffer most from these ongoing carriage renewal disputes are the customers. Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics, said that while carriage disputes have always been present in the linear pay-TV era, the fragmentation of current at-home entertainment makes the lapses much more noticeable, especially when dealing with sports broadcast rights that are strewn across the small-screen ecosystem. When consumers are juggling multiple subscriptions, often directed by access to specific content such as sports channels, their removal causes added friction, Katz told Fast Company. That friction often leads to a temporary spike in cancellations and, in this instance, perhaps a short-term bump in ESPN Unlimited and/or Disney Bundle sign-ups. Convenience, cost, and access rule consumer decision-making in the convoluted streaming era. YouTube TV is estimated to be the fourth-largest multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) in the United States, rivaling traditional cable providers with around 10 million subscribers. That means it wields enormous leverage, although Katz did point out that blackouts caused by disputes like this typically dont last too long. Even when these disputes result in a blackout, they don’t usually extend past a couple weeks, Katz said. I fully expect YouTube TV and Disney to reach a deal in the near future. However, the increasing frequency of these disputes and the overextended nature of sports rights these days make it particularly frustrating for consumers, who ultimately vote wih their wallets.
Category:
E-Commerce
Ted Bundy had courtroom groupies. Jeffrey Dahmer and Richard Ramirez were sent love letters in prison. Now, in the age of social media, thousands like, share, and thirst in the comments over stylized fan edits of serial killers. Theres a term for this psychological phenomenon: hybristophilia. A new study has found a connection between young womens engagement with this type of TikTok content and their sexual attraction to criminals. Those who liked or repeatedly watched clips glorifying notorious serial killers, such as Bundy and Dahmer, or fictional villains like Joe Goldberg from Netflixs You, scored higher for hybristophilia than those who scrolled past such content, according to the peer-reviewed research published in the journal Deviant Behavior, the only journal that specifically and exclusively addresses social deviance. The findings also indicate that personality traits like Machiavellianism and psychopathy are strong predictors of these tendencies. Previous research on hybristophilia often focused on women already in relationships with convicted offenders. Instead, researchers at the University of Huddersfield, aimed to explore how this attraction emerges in younger generations, particularly through social media platforms like TikTok. The study analyzed 66 TikToks and 91 comments posted between 2020 and 2024, then surveyed nearly 100 female TikTok users aged 18 to 27, measuring hybristophilia levels, empathy and dark personality traits. As seen in the recent reaction to Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione, who has been obsessively idolized online and sent fan mail in prison, the halo effect can play in these killers favor. Conventionally attractive offenders like Mangione often have their crimes minimized, while researchers found comments like Daddy or Smash commonly used in reference to notorious serial killers. Some users even expressed what the study called a victim fantasy, with 7.6% of participants admitting to having sexual fantasies about conventionally attractive offenders like Bundy. In their research, the studys authors found violent behaviors were often romanticized, recast as crimes of loyalty or passion. Some expressed the belief that love could reform the killers, a theme the researchers called I Can Fix Him. In some cases, social media users conflated the serial killers with their Hollywood counterparts, a phenomenon known as actor-offender transference. Attraction to actors like Zac Efron or Evan Peters, who played Bundy and Dahmer on-screen, then spilled into attraction to the real-life killers. For those concerned that innocently scrolling social media will suddenly have them fantasizing about serial killers, dont fear. The study found exposure to content romanticizing offenders on a social media feed did not by itself predict an attraction to criminals. Only when users engaged in the content by watching, commenting, or otherwise interacting, did a link present itself.
Category:
E-Commerce
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