Paycom is continuing with its purging ways, but only this time it's official!
Earlier this morning, the Ogle Mole Network, Reddit, and the broader social media sphere lit up with reports that Paycom – the OKC-based S&P 500 payroll tech company that’s been aggressively (and unprofessionally) cutting staff over the past year – has commenced yet another round of employee layoffs.
Just like previous purges, this one is hitting the OKC campus especially hard, with over 500 employees in departments like HR, QA, and Product being shown the door with little to no explanation.
According to Paycom, the switch is due to AI:
Paycom to replace over 500 workers with artificial intelligence at Oklahoma City headquarters https://t.co/jL61RPXH5o
— The Oklahoman (@TheOklahoman_) October 1, 2025
Yep, it’s all due to AI robots or whatever. They can do HR grunt work probably better than most humans, so that makes sense. Nothing else to see here. Move along.
Unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to get the real story about the layoffs and the underlying issues behind them. Paycom requires all employees to sign confidentiality agreements and even warns them against discussing their job or previous employment.
I know this because we’ve obtained, via the Ogle Mole Network, secretly recorded audio of the layoff Zoom call.
We’ve acquired exclusive audio from Paycom’s mass-firing Zoom call!
— The Lost Ogle (@TheLostOgle) October 1, 2025
Just like their other purges, they warned employees not to speak publicly and refused to let them retrieve personal items from their workspaces.
The audio is real. I put it on an Office Space image for fun. pic.twitter.com/AqqeHF8UDG
Wow. I’d heard rumors that Paycom was pretty dickish with the way they handled layoffs, and this pretty much confirms it.
Terminating professionals of all types and backgrounds who dedicated years of service to your company over a cold Zoom call is brutal enough, but not even allowing these employees the courtesy of packing up their belongings and saying goodbye to coworkers takes things to a more sinister level.
I mean, I kind of get it. When I was laid off from my last job 15 years ago, I had to work two more weeks before I was officially gone. That was awkward, but not as awkward as when the IT guy called a month later and asked if I’d seen the fancy backup flash drive that contained most of my/their design files. The statute of limitations is up for that, right?
Still, the “retributional theft” risk excuse seems flimsy to me. Isn’t there a better way to do this than boxing up someone’s life and having FedEx deliver it? Not only does that feel like a privacy violation, but it’s also mean and controlling. I guess Paycom is run by a guy whose favorite job in life was being a bouncer at a Beach Boys concert, so maybe he gets off on being a lame, power-hungry bully.
(Editor’s Note: Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys were great. The Kokomo sax-solo carnival act Chad bounced for? Not so great.)
As opposed to their previous purges, when Paycom circumvented reporting requirements by forcing people out or firing them “with cause,” this one was by the book, so the local media is actually covering it. Once the dust settles, they’ll hopefully get back to ignoring Paycom’s year-long purge of its employee base and its struggles to adapt to the ever-changing future.
Anyway, if you have any tips or info about the latest firing spree, hit us up on the TLO tip line. Even if you signed a Paycom confidentiality agreement, your anonymity is guaranteed.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
