Cirque du Soleil CEO Daniel Lamarre Fired Thousands of Employees via Crude Video

Picture: Getty

At midday right now, Daniel Lamarre, president and CEO of Cirque du Soleil Leisure Group, circulated a video amongst staff informing 95 % of them that they’re now unemployed, in line with a number of newly laid-off staff who say they obtained an electronic mail containing a hyperlink to the video.

In line with a newly laid-off worker who didn’t want to be named, staffers bought an electronic mail Wednesday evening advising them to count on an “essential announcement” at midday right now. Regardless of having being instructed final week they might be retained so as to get reveals up and working as shortly as potential when coronavirus restrictions are lifted, Lamarre laid off 95 % of the corporate’s staff, together with administrative workers and inventive administrators in a weird two-minute video. “I want I had an opportunity to talk to you in individual,” Lamarre says within the video. “Unfortunately, given the present pandemic, a video was the most suitable choice for me to talk to all of you on the identical time, and most significantly, shield your well being.”

“The tone was simply bizarre, particularly [From] a person I’ve met like as soon as sporting Bono sun shades.”

“The tone was simply bizarre,” the supply says, “particularly [from] a person I’ve met like as soon as sporting Bono sun shades.”

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Screenshot: Cirque du Soleil

Up to now week, Cirque du Soleil, which additionally owns Blue Man Group and V-Star Leisure, has shuttered its reveals in Las Vegas and world wide attributable to coronavirus. Following the present closures, part-time and contract staff, which embrace everybody from ushers to aerialists, in line with the supply, have been instructed they might be notified when their jobs have been as soon as once more accessible. Nevertheless, remaining workers anticipated to be told of additional layoffs by supervisors. As an alternative, supervisors discovered on the identical time their groups did, leaving 4,679 folks unemployed in a video only one minute longer than a tv business.

Fifteen minutes after receiving the video, a choose group of staff got entry to a convention name, the place the now-former staffers thought they could obtain extra info. As an alternative, a former worker says, staff listened for an additional eight minutes, throughout which Lamarre “nervously yelled at us” earlier than telling listeners that WWII was the one financial disaster he may suppose to check the present predicament to and hanging up the telephone as questions poured in. (Jezebel reached out to Cirque du Soleil for remark and can replace after they reply.)

And although staff on the decision discovered that medical insurance might be lined for as much as six months for full-time staff, in line with the previous staffer, it might be not possible to for them to cash-in on any accrued paid break day or unused sick days, since doing so would point out that the worker had give up, leaving them ineligible for unemployment—the one monetary recourse for many of these laid off right now.

Lamerra disconnected the road following his monologue, leaving staff, lots of whom had been working with the corporate for over a decade, shocked. “Everyone seems to be confused, shocked, and scrambling,” the supply stated.

And whereas coronavirus layoffs have impacted many, leaving staff scrambling with out a supply of earnings past unemployment, an impersonal video emailed to staff across the globe and convention name hyperlink for a choose few looks like a very heartless method to break the information to the 1000’s of individuals Lamarre refers to as “household.”

“In these tough instances,” Lamarre instructed the viewers simply studying they are going to be with out employment for the foreseeable future, “a very powerful factor might be to remain linked with one another” earlier than encouraging these with login credentials to go to an worker web site for updates.