RadioShack: You've got pink slip

For RadioShack, apparently the best way to deal with employees is not face to face. The electronics retailer this week thought it best to use e-mail to notify about 400 employees at its Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters that they no longer work for the company.

"The work force reduction notification is currently in progress," read an e-mail delivered Tuesday morning. "Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated."

A company representative told the Associated Press that employees were informed that layoff notices would be delivered electronically and that employees were welcome to use the company's intranet to submit questions before the layoffs occurred.

Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, told AP that he had never heard of such a large number of employees being informed of their termination electronically. He said employees could see it as dehumanizing.

"If I put myself in their shoes, I'd say, 'Didn't they have a few minutes to tell me?'" D'Souza said.

Perhaps it's just a normal progression of the medium: We search for jobs online, apply for them via e-mail, use company intranets to change our benefits packages, and even use the Internet to work from home.

Is there really any reason to see your boss anymore? Certainly not to get fired. Not anymore.

Not if you work for RadioShack.