Keystone
The e-scooter provider Bird fired 400 employees via the video conference app Zoom and then deactivated their laptops.
For some years now, e-scooters from providers like Bird have become an integral part of the cityscape of metropolises worldwide. However, the dramatic reduction in public life in large parts of the world due to the corona crisis naturally affects the company’s business model hard.
It is therefore not surprising that Bird also cut jobs massively. Last Friday, 406 employees, approximately 40 percent of the entire workforce, were fired. However, the type of termination in the home office age still causes outrage. A dismissed employee felt reminded of a consequence of the dystopian Netflix series “Black Mirror”, as reported by “dot.LA”.
Mass termination in two minutes
Last Friday morning, employees received an invitation to a zoom video conference with the generic name “Covid-19 Update”. When they logged in at that time, there was an “ominous” silence for five minutes.
Then there was an unidentified female voice reading a two-minute statement announcing the dismissal en masse to the employees. It is unclear who this person was, but Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden did not dare to speak to his employees himself.
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Immediately after the video conference ended, the MacBooks with which the Bird employees worked from home restarted. After that, it was no longer possible to log on. According to “dot.LA”, Bird had previously programmed a computer script with which the service laptops can be deactivated remotely.
“In retrospect, we should have made personal calls to those affected,” admitted VanderZanden later on Twitter. The company said that all employees had been contacted in the meantime, but many of those affected disagree with «dot.LA». However, everyone has received a message saying that they must return the working MacBooks by April 15th.
Pictures of the day
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In Mattersey, England, firefighters had their hands full to free this horse from its plight. The animal had plunged into a septic tank and here it had come to lie on its back. The horse was recovered unharmed by means of a crane truck and belts.
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So that the last one gets it: at the airport in Frankfurt am Main, you obviously don’t believe that a simply stretched barrier tape is enough to keep people away from the catering area in Terminal 2.
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Planet of dogs? Four-legged friends can let off steam in a deserted train station in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.
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The English phrase “when the shit hits the fan” (German: “When the Sch **** hits the fan) means as much as” then the shit is steaming “. Technically, however, it describes this process in Papendorf, Germany, quite precisely: manure is spread in a field.
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Like a tiger in a cage: James Campbell runs a marathon in his six-meter-long garden in London during the initial restrictions on curbing the coronavirus.
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Quiet times: On the Gold Coast in Kirra, surfers are waiting for the right waves. But the Pacific looks very unspectacular in this regard.
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There is a burning delivery van on the Pan-American Highway near the Mexican city of Cortazar. Armed criminals had stopped the vehicle, pulled out the occupants, and then set it on fire to block the freeway on their escape.
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In the “Home Office”: the ballet dancer Vivian Assam Koohnavard trains on the balcony of her one-room apartment in Berlin.
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Harmony in troubled times: Two people enjoy the sunrise on Maroubra Beach in Sydney, Australia – with a good distance.
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Completely undisturbed: Oversized dino figures are in Dinopark Germendorf, Germany. Due to the Corona crisis, this animal and leisure park is also closed.
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Distance is a foreign word here: tightly packed try to get a little money for those in need in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka.
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In view of this mountain hare in the Scottish Cairngorms National Park it is not clear who has to be afraid of whom. However, the photographer pressed the shutter just at the moment when Meister Lampe was pushing his significantly stronger hind leg forward in personal care.
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Unfortunately, it is not yet in a good mood: in front of the Petronas twin towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a drone is deploying disinfectants in a residential area to curb the spread of the corona virus.
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Escape to misfortune: a Porsche driver in Rottenschwil AG escaped from the police drunk and without a driver’s license. The 38-year-old driver lost control of his vehicle and ended up in the Reuss.
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“Red cruise ship”: The “USNS Comfort”, a hospital ship of the US Navy, arrives in the port of New York City. The ship is supposed to relieve the hospitals in the city and take in up to 1,000 patients who are not affected by Covid-19.
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Noticeable inactivity: market stalls that are protected from the sun by pink awnings are in a street of Mexico City on a reduced but still active market. In recent weeks, critics have accused President Lopez Obrador of not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously enough.
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Parts of the church tower of the nearly 200-year-old Urban Bible Fellowship Church in Baltimore, USA, plummet after a fire broke out here. The trigger was probably a lightning strike.
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Amusement in Corona times: In Essen, Germany, two women women watch a film on the big screen in a drive-in cinema.
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Resourceful: In Kathmandu, Nepal, a young monkey tries to suck some liquid from a gargoyle at the Pashupatinath Temple. Because a nationwide lock down was imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, many animals also lack food that they otherwise get from passers-by.
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Provisional protection: As a precaution against the risk of infection with the corona virus, this cashier works in Caracas, Venezuela, behind a plastic film. The once rich country was already in a deep economic crisis before the coronavirus pandemic.
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Is the distance enough? The residents of the “Washington Square” neighborhood sit together in the garden for a “social distancing meeting”.
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After a tornado in the US city of Jonesboro, some debris is lying in a parking lot. The sun sets in the background.
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In a coffee shop in Hong Kong, chairs and tables are made “inoperable” with adhesive tape to guarantee the safety distance between guests during the corona pandemic.
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The word “Merci” (“thank you”) is projected onto the Eiffel Tower. In solidarity with the helpers in the fight against the corona pandemic, the Parisian landmark will shine in a special light every evening.
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An Indian police officer wearing a helmet in the characteristic shape of the corona viruses asks a woman to observe the nationwide curfew.
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In Melbourne, Australia, a police officer informs beach visitors that the beach in the Brighton Beach district is closed due to the corona crisis.
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On behalf of the municipality of Zermatt, light artist Gerry Hofstetter projects messages of hope and solidarity onto the Matterhorn in times of the corona crisis.
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Greetings to Ms. Merkel: The Syrian painter Aziz Al-Asmar (right) creates a mural in a damaged building that represents German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The inscription “Ms. Merkel Your well-being was looking forward to us in Idilib” can be read on it.
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Parked: Delta Airlines machines that are not required are parked at Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California with hundreds of other aircraft. US airlines saw 30 percent fewer domestic flights during the corona crisis, and 75 percent fewer international flights.
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Emergency hospital: The Iranian army has set up a temporary hospital in Tehran with 2,000 beds for new coronavirus patients. According to the Ministry of Health, the number of deaths in the country increased to 2,234 on Thursday, and the number of infected to almost 30,000.
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In contact with higher powers: Start of shift: Hospital staff in Quetta, Pakistan, pray before the start of their shift.
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The US space agency has created a complex picture of how the invisible but extremely harmful greenhouse gas methane rises into the earth’s atmosphere. Methane is still fairly underrepresented in the global warming discussion, although its negative effects are 25 times greater than those of carbon dioxide.
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Determination from a distance: Carabinieri in Rome use a drone to search a park for visitors before it is completely closed in the wake of the Corona crisis.
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Undoubtedly a business idea – but also a good one? In Vietnam, a confectioner with a face mask puts «Corona Burger» rolls into the oven.
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Now there is animal trouble: A dog in Weissensee in Berlin saves itself from the water while a swan attacks it.
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The dream of a soft bed: A man in Bucharest, Romania, is sleeping on the sidewalk under an advertisement for home textiles.
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A wooden beam has pierced the front window of a truck on the A18 at Aesch BL and just missed the handlebars of the Camion. The bar had previously detached from the load carrier of a delivery truck and had protruded into the oncoming lane.
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Slimy bearers of hope: so-called glass eels swim in a container just before they are released into the Elbe. The existence of migratory fish in the German river is to be secured with around 450,000 exposed eels.
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The Gnome in the Prime Minister: Justin Trudeau, Head of State of Canada, is alienated through the viewfinder of a camera.
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Aiming high: A doctor has to climb a ladder at a drive-through test site in Las Vegas so that she can test a truck driver for the corona virus.
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Successful crash landing: Police forces are standing next to a crashed small plane in Mainz, Germany. The machine crashed shortly after take-off with two men on board – they were only slightly injured.
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When a man was checked in Essen, Germany, federal police officers were surprised: the man had deposited a total of 103 cosmetics in their original packaging and a pair of women’s briefs. The 57-year-old, who is already known to the police because of shoplifting, did not want to comment on the origin of the goods. The police are now looking for the owner.
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