Synergon chief executive Bryce Vantage informed nine thousand employees of their termination on Monday via a prerecorded hologram, hours before accepting the Visionary Humanitarian Award for Empathy at Scale at an industry gala.
In the hologram, which could not hear or see the people it was addressing, Vantage said the decision was difficult, that the team was family, and that family sometimes has to be optimized. The hologram then waved and dissolved into the company logo.
At the gala, Vantage thanked the very employees he had released that morning for making the award possible, and reminded the audience that true leadership means making the hard calls from a stage, in a tuxedo, to applause.