More and more companies are giving their employees pink slips via text messaging

It used to be that getting fired by email was the worst way an employee could receive the sobering news, but now there’s an even more impersonal way for bosses to pass on the message: via SMS.

According to the country’s largest labour union, HK, the practice is becoming more common among companies.

Most recently the union points to 14 employees getting the axe through text messages at two southwestern Jutland hotels.

‘We really believe it’s not an appropriate way to do things,’ Jeanette Hahnemann, legal consultant for HK, told JydskeVestkysten newspaper. She added, however, that firing by SMS was not illegal.

Employer organisation Ledernes Hovedorganisation acknowledged the practice takes place, but it also advised companies’ managements against using it.