Zoom Is Laying Off 1,300 Employees

The poser-child for pandemic-fueled growth is joining the long list of companies letting employees go, with Zoom announcing 1,300 layoffs....
Zoom Is Laying Off 1,300 Employees
Written by WebProNews
  • The poser-child for pandemic-fueled growth is joining the long list of companies letting employees go, with Zoom announcing 1,300 layoffs.

    CEO Eric S. Yuan announced the layoffs in a blog post:

    Over the past few years, Zoom has become an indispensable source of connection for businesses and individuals as well as a globally recognized brand. Whether you have been at Zoom since the beginning or joined us more recently, you’ve played an important role in our evolution, and that makes today’s announcement particularly difficult. We have made the tough but necessary decision to reduce our team by approximately 15% and say goodbye to around 1,300 hardworking, talented colleagues.

    Like almost every other tech CEO, Yuan blames explosive growth during the pandemic, followed by a dramatically different economy in recent months:

    We built Zoom to remove the friction that businesses felt when collaborating. Our trajectory was forever changed during the pandemic when the world faced one of its toughest challenges, and I am proud of the way we mobilized as a company to keep people connected. To make this possible, we needed to staff up rapidly to support the quick rise of users on our platform and their evolving needs. Within 24 months, Zoom grew 3x in size to manage this demand while enabling continued innovation.

    We worked tirelessly and made Zoom better for our customers and users. But we also made mistakes. We didn’t take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities.

    As the world transitions to life post-pandemic, we are seeing that people and businesses continue to rely on Zoom. But the uncertainty of the global economy, and its effect on our customers, means we need to take a hard – yet important – look inward to reset ourselves so we can weather the economic environment, deliver for our customers and achieve Zoom’s long-term vision.

    The company will offer US-based employees 16 weeks salary, as well as health coverage. The company will also pay FY23 annual bonuses and receive outplacement assistance.

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