Scooter sharing app Bird laid off nearly a third of its staff during the coronavirus pandemic using video teleconferencing app Zoom, reports BBC.

A Twitter user first reported the firings on Zoom, saying her friend, along with 400 other employees, got laid off by "dialing into a pre-recorded Zoom message."

"Her manager never even called to say goodbye," wrote Julia Black. "The virus may be out of your control, but you humanely handle it is not."

Bird chief technology officer Justin Balthrop acknowledged the layoffs and apologized for how the message was delivered.

"Hey Julia. I just wanted to reach out because I was on the Zoom call, and it was definitely not pre-recorded," Balthrop wrote on Twitter. "The woman delivering the message, a good friend, almost started crying halfway through. I acknowledge we could have done it better. It was a very hard day for everyone."

Travis VanderZanden, Bird's chief executive, also apologized.

"We did NOT let employees go via a pre-recording. It was via a live zoom mtg (not ideal either) b/c we're all WFH during COVID," he tweeted. "Video was turned off which we thought was more humane. In retrospect, we should've made 1on1 calls to the 100s impacted over the course of a few days."

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