Workplace expert Roxanne Calder said firing an employee by text is not only “impersonal”, but an indicator of a bigger cultural shift.

Communication over email threads and messages is the new norm, she told news.com.au.

“Technology I think has become a bit of a shield – I don’t think people are intending to be unprofessional or cruel,” she said.

“We’re seeing what psychologists call avoidant communication, where the fear of confrontation overrides our professional responsibility and duty.

“Ever since the pandemic, we’ve normalised that distance.”

Ms Calder said by digitalising our relationships and communications in the workplace, people feel less “relational responsibility” when it comes to dealing with conflict or having tough conversations.

“Managers are probably treating a termination in the way they treat any other task, you send a message and that’s ticked (off), done, when in actual fact that’s a human we’re dealing with and it’s their livelihood, not to mention all the other emotional and psychological factors that come into play when people lose their job,” she added.

“When that happens over text, it’s not just poor etiquette.

“There’s a disintegration I think of some values, morals, but it comes back again to this – the ease to which we’re able to communicate with (technology) now,” she added.

“And when it gets a little bit hard and difficult, people revert to this.”

Ms Calder said she had seen workers be fired over text before, as well as resigning in the same way.

She said the first thing she would have done if she had received that text is taken it to the company’s HR department.

“I think it speaks to about the workplace culture that hasn’t developed emotional maturity – people need to think about the brand, the reputational value,” she added.

“And if this becomes normal, I think we’re in big trouble.”