Joe Nocera, Columnist

Correction: A Column Based on the Wrong Memo

Zenefits informed employees of layoffs before it informed the public. Its internal e-mail struck all the right notes.

In happier times.

Photographer: Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch
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Shortly after I posted a column Thursday afternoon about recently announced layoffs at Zenefits, a Silicon Valley company that makes personnel-management software, I received an e-mail from a member of the company’s communication staff. He said that my item was based on “inaccurate information,” and as I now realize, he was right.

I had based my piece on a mistaken assumption that an e-mail Zenefits executives had written about the layoffs, which had been reprinted on various websites, was their way of informing their employees of the cutbacks. I had been appalled by what appeared to be their lack of empathy.