It's bad enough getting fired from a job, but to get your pink slip in an email? That seems to be business as usual at RadioShack these days. The Boston Globe is reporting that 400 RadioShack employees were fired via email on Tuesday morning. The message was short and to the point:

The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated.

Employees were forewarned that layoffs would be coming and that they would be handed out electronically. Affected persons were given 30 minutes to pack up, make phone calls and say goodbye to co-workers before meeting with senior managers. From BusinessWeek:

Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, said he had never heard of such a large number of terminated employees being notified electronically. He said it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees. Laid-off workers got one to three weeks pay for each year of service, up to 16 weeks for hourly employees and 36 weeks for those with base bay of at least $90,000, the company said.

Hopefully, this isn't a sign of things to come in the business world. RadioShack had announced in February that it planned to close between 400 to 700 stores. Since then, the company has closed nearly 500 stores already.