Employee who secretly recorded ‘traumatizing’ moment she was fired hits back after being called a ‘loose cannon’

A woman who took to TikTok to share a video of herself getting laid off has spoken out after facing backlash.

Brittany Pietsch took to her social media last week to share a clip of her on a video call with two colleagues.

Despite only having worked there for three months, the former account executive at web firm, Cloudfare, had suspicions she was about to be laid off as several other employees had been earlier the same day.

So, when the time came for the call with a member of HR and a director - neither of whom she says she'd ever met before - Brittany got her camera out. Check out the video here:

The recording Brittany took of the moment she was let go makes for a painful watch.

She questions why she's being let go and reflects on her performance during her three-and-a-half months at the company.

The former employee then adds: "It must be very easy for you to have these little 10, 15 minute meetings, tell someone that they're fired, completely wreck their whole life, and then that's it with no explanation - that's extremely traumatizing for people if you can imagine that."

Oof.

While some people flooded to Brittany's post in support of her, others criticised her recording and sharing of the moment, branding her a 'loose cannon employee' for the next company who potentially hires her. And she's since hit back at the labelling.

TikTok/alexyardigans

Taking to her LinkedIn page, Brittany decided to address some of the comments she's received after sharing the video of her getting fired.

Clarifying her manager had 'no idea' she would be getting let go, and the 'random director' who fired her having 'never heard of [her] name until that day,' Brittany also noted she wasn't 'attempting to save [her] job' but 'only trying to understand exactly why [she] was being let go in the way that [she] was'.

She reflected on the days after posting the video as being 'a rollercoaster,' thanking those who reached out in support.

However, in response to being called a 'loose cannon', Brittany says: "I’ll tell you what, any company that wouldn’t want to hire me because I shared a video of how a company fired me or because I asked questions as to why I was being let go is not a company I would ever want to work for anyway. If I don’t stand up for myself… who will?"

TikTok/ @brittanypeachhh

Cloudflare's CEO Matthew Prince responded after Brittany's video went viral, stating: "We fired ~40 sales people out of over 1,500 in our go-to market org. That's a normal quarter. When we're doing performance management right, we can often tell within 3 months or less of a sales hire, even during the holidays, whether they're going to be successful or not. Sadly, we don't hire perfectly. We try to fire perfectly.

"The video is painful for me to watch. Managers should always be involved. HR should be involved, but it shouldn't be outsourced to them, no employee should ever actually be surprised they weren't performing. We don't always get it right.

"Any healthy org needs to get the people who aren't performing off. That wasn't the mistake here. The mistake was not being as kind and humane as we were. And that's something @zatlyn [Michelle Zatlyn - COO of Cloudflare] and I am focused on improving going forward."