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WSJ What’s News

The New Corporate Playbook for How to Do a Layoff

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, News

4.14.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

P.M. Edition for Nov. 17. As companies are laying off thousands of workers, they’re using new tactics like texting and emails and listen-only video calls to communicate to workers that they’ve lost their jobs. Chip Cutter, who covers workplace issues for the Journal, discusses what’s driving these new strategies and how workers are responding. Plus, the head of FEMA has resigned after about seven months on the job. And “Baby Shark Dance”—every toddler’s favorite jam—is YouTube’s most watched video ever. But that mind-blowing popularity hasn’t translated to major sales for the South Korean company behind it. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:06.0

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0:13.0

From the largest cloud to the smallest device, Arm delivers the compute performance AI depends on.

0:19.0

AI innovation is built on ARM.

0:22.2

Find out more at arm.com forward slash discover.

0:27.7

The acting head of FEMA has resigned in the latest high-level departure at the federal agency.

0:37.9

Plus, why prop bets are so popular and why sports leagues are starting to crack down on them.

0:43.4

If people start doubting that what they're watching is genuine competition, you essentially don't

0:48.5

have a business anymore.

0:50.4

And does Amazon laying people off via text and email signal a new approach to job cuts?

0:56.3

It's Monday, November 17th.

0:58.3

I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal.

1:00.7

This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

1:08.8

Sinclair, one of the country's largest owners of local TV stations, says it has built a roughly 8% stake in local TV broadcaster EW scripts to help it buy the company.

1:19.8

Sinclair says it's discussed a deal with scripts, but there's no agreement yet.

1:26.6

We're in a moment when employers are laying off thousands of workers, and how they're doing it keeps evolving.

1:32.6

During the pandemic, it was Zoom calls, then it was surprise calendar invites to HR meetings.

1:37.6

Now, many companies are trying to make layoffs more efficient, and they tend to involve a lot less FaceTime.

1:43.3

When Amazon started laying off some

1:44.9

14,000 employees last month, they received a text to check their emails, which then informed

1:50.0

them they lost their job. Some Southwest Airlines employees learned they lost their jobs while at home

1:55.0

via a scripted video call that was in listen-only mode, not letting them respond. For more on how

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