Both said they were meeting or exceeding expectations in their roles, and each had been in their positions for a year or less. The employees, who worked in different departments on opposite coasts, claimed to have positive relationships with their colleagues and direct managers and no performance-related issues. They were offered severance packages worth several thousand dollars each, but HR gave only vague explanations for their firing - they were no longer вЂњa good fitвЂќ for the company - and dodged further inquiry into the rationale, they said. In interviews, two employees who were fired last week described the companyвЂ™s handling of their dismissal as unprofessional. During the pandemic, it reportedly asked its IT staff to track remote workersвЂ™ online activity.Д¬oStar has disputed its negative portrayal in media reports and claimed a conflict of interest at one of its main antagonists, the news outlet Insider, whose parent company, German publisher Axel Springer, competes with CoStar in Europe. It is unclear how many were axed, but Peterson, whose Instagram account CoStar Memes has become a sounding board for the firmвЂ™s disaffected employees, said it could be dozens.Д¬oStar declined to comment on personnel matters, but a spokesperson said that the company вЂњdid not terminate any employees for following a social media account.вЂќ An enemy withinДЄ dominant player in commercial real estate data, CoStar has earned a reputation as an exacting, inflexible employer that, among other things, charges employees for parking at their own workplace and dismisses them for minor offenses. Some of those let go suspect their firing was a reprisal for engaging with an Instagram account critical of the firm. Within 24 hours of filing an arbitration demand last week against Nate Peterson, a researcher it fired last year for poor performance, CoStar called employees around the country into private meetings and terminated them, effective immediately, sources said. The real estate data giant, which has come under fire recently for its allegedly draconian managerial style that is said to have included surveilling remote workers, is now seeking an injunction to stop an ex-employee from mocking the company on social media.

The joke seems to have been lost on CoStarвЂ™s leadership. CoStarвЂ™s Andy Florance (CoStar, iStock, Illustration by Kevin Cifuentes for The Real Deal)

Deal with it imeme