Diminished Substitutes– “The degree with which we are using technology as a replacement for face-to-face communication”

This scene is an excellent example of the phrase: diminish substitute. There are certainly right and wrong ways to letting go an employee. In this scene Natalie, Ryan’s mentee, tries out the new method of video conferencing in order to lay off employees. Ryan’s company is testing this method in order to cut the cost of their employees traveling. The company was trying to make video chat firing at best, a crude substitute for in person firing. As seen in the video, this was a clear mistake! As Simone Weil states, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

Without being face-to-face, Natalie is avoiding making emotional contact with the employee. By making the use of video conferencing as a means to communicate to the employee, they overlooked the employee’s feelings. Natalie later quits her job after a woman committed suicide. She realized that the company’s mission statement and vision does not coincide with her personally.

At such an emotional time in each of the employees that are being
laid off, they need that individual attention, deep concern, or a sense of worth. Firing someone requires the hard work of emotional and genuine compassion and using video chatting as a means of firing someone does the opposite. Even when firing an employee, there needs to be every possible effort to preserve the employee’s dignity.

One of the worst things that can be done to a person is to take away their job. It dehumanizes a procedure that is quite inhuman to begin with. Doing it face to face does not relinquish some of the pain, but it does make it more intimate and is one small gesture that can help the employee walk away with some dignity. By accepting the means of firing someone over video chat, eventually we also become diminished substitutes. As Jonathan Safran Foer puts it “Technology celebrates connectedness, but encourages retreat.”