When three Boston-area Hyatt properties fired nearly 100 staff housekeepers last month and replaced them with cheaper contract employees, management employed a common tactic: Surprise.

Rich Roberts

The sting of that message is familiar to the thousands of us who lost our jobs in the same, abrupt way during the last 18 months. We arrived at work one morning only to be told that our services no longer were required and that we should pack up and leave as soon as possible.

Like most employers, Hyatt managers executed the Boston terminations outside of the public eye. Companies rarely comment publicly on employment matters, citing respect for the privacy of the individuals involved (and thereby insulating themselves from lawsuits).

Terminated employees typically go away quietly, shocked or embarrassed into silence and loathe to suffer further humiliation. The colleagues they leave behind also suffer in silence, fearful of their own jobs and resentful that they were denied a chance to say goodbye.

Moreover, mass job losses have lost their shock value among the general public, which seems to have accepted downsizings and outsourcing as necessary evils in today’s global economy, especially during a recession.

Unfortunately for Hyatt Hotels Corporation, the housekeeper terminations became front-page news around the world 17 days later after Katie Johnston Chase of The Boston Globe reported Hyatt managers tricked the housekeepers into training their replacements.

Housekeepers told Chase their managers had asked them to train “some new workers” who would be “filling in during vacations.” The trainees, as it turns out, work for Hospitality Staffing Solutions, a Georgia firm contracted to replace the housekeepers.

Using language that has become all-too-familiar during the recession, Hyatt issued the following statement that was quoted in The Boston Globe story: “As part of an ongoing drive to address challenging economic conditions, the Hyatt hotels of Boston have restructured their housekeeping services. Regrettably, the restructuring included staff reductions.”

Hyatt’s words were logical, rational and consistent with explanations offered by countless other companies struggling to cope with the business downturn. The newspaper corroborated Hyatt’s claim, reporting that Boston-area hotels had suffered a 21 percent RevPAR decline in June compared with 2008, a fact attributed to PKF Hospitality Research.

But Hyatt’s public statement failed to move public sentiment. More than 600 readers posted comments on The Boston Globe’s Web site, www.boston.com, the overwhelming majority of which were negative. “Shame on Hyatt for being so deceptive,” wrote a reader identified as sheriadoc. “To lay off employees is one thing, but to lie about it to their faces is just disgusting.”

“Real classy, Hyatt,” wrote another reader, dirtywater1. “Could this company possibly stoop any lower? I'll be sure not to stay at a Hyatt any time in the future. There are plenty of other competitors to choose from.”

The public protests

The next day, hundreds of hotel workers and their supporters turned out for what The Boston Globe called a “raucous rally” to protest the terminations in front of the Hyatt Regency Boston, banging on drums and shouting, “Hyatt, shame on you!” The same housekeepers who went away quietly on 31 August had returned with a vengeance.

Politicians poured verbal gasoline on the fiery protest. U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano and state Sen. Anthony Galluccio called for a boycott of Hyatt. Mayor Thomas Menino characterized the terminations as a “crude business decision” and said he “stands with these workers.”

Hyatt fired back that day by e-mailing a page-long statement to the news media. The well-crafted comment expressed regret, sought to put the outsourcing decision into a national context, spelled out the economic necessity for the action, detailed steps to help the fired housekeepers and included an assurance that the contract workers would do a good job.

Most notably, the statement rejected claims that Hyatt managers deceived the housekeepers into training their replacements, calling those reports “absolutely false” and denying that the transition was either “sudden or secretive.”

Irate comments soon began to appear on national newspaper sites, including USA Today, and the blog of its reporter, Barbara Delollis, who covers travel and hotels.

“Shame on Hyatt,” wrote USA Today reader Davidwnv.  “I will never stay in a Hyatt property again. I will also encourage my 300,000+ colleagues to avoid all Hyatt properties.”