In a company, one of the most significant factors is the employees. Without them, one cannot even imagine running a company, no matter how small the business is. Your employees are the main assets of your company. However in 2022, we are seeing, some major, popular companies laying off their employees. Some of these layoffs have stunned the world of business as they are even reaching thousands of employees at once.
The reason for the layoffs varies, from cost-cutting to bad performance to financial difficulties. Some of the companies even faced criticism for their sudden decision. The pandemic has already done enough damage that people lost their jobs and now these strings of similar layoffs are creating a ruckus in the world. The economic situation of the world is also a big reason for these layoffs. According to reports over 8000 people alone in just the first half of 2022 have been laid off by their companies.
In this article, we will talk about those companies who have laid off their employees and their reason for doing that. Furthermore, we will also talk about the companies that have the possibility to follow the path of laying off their employees. So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
“Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.” -Herb Kelleher
Lido Learning
Microsoft
Netflix
Twitter
BlueStacks
TikTok
Unacademy
Vedantu
Cars24
Meesho
Better.Com
Blinkit
OkCredit
Furlenco
Trell
Ford
Noom
Robinhood
Nestlé
Tesco
Unilever
Mfine
Klarna
Cineplex
Primark
Royal Mail
DiDi
Conde Nast
Rupeek
Coinbase
CityMall
Byju’s
Tesla
Common Reasons for the Layoffs
Companies That Have to Freeze Their Hiring
Companies That Might Layoff Their Employees
Lido Learning
Founder – Sahil Sheth
Year – 2019
Laid Off – 200 Employees
The employees of Lido Learning faced a shocking and terrible situation when almost 200 of them were laid off in the month of February 2022. The EdTech Company’s sudden decision put a question mark on their employees’ future. The strange part is, that Lido Learning has been backed by some of the most prominent investors like Anupam Mittal and Mukesh Bansal. The company also raised over $10 million in the month of September 2021. Lido Learning founder Sahil Sheth informed the employees that because of facing some financial difficulties, the company wouldn’t be able to pay their salaries. Apart from that, some employees were even asked to look for other jobs.
Microsoft
Founder – Bill Gates, Paul Allen
Year – 1975
Laid Off – ~1800 Employees
Microsoft Corporation or Microsoft is founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975. Microsoft is an American multinational technology corporation that is unarguably one of the biggest tech companies in the world today. However, after the company announced that it would be laying off as part of a “realignment”, Microsoft also joined the list of big companies laying off their employees. Besides, it is also important to note that Microsoft has become the first tech giant to lay off employees. The Microsoft layoffs will affect 1% of its 1,80,000-strong workforce across the Microsoft offices and products, as per reports dated July 13, 2022.
Along with the announcement of Microsoft laying off, the news of the slowdown of Microsoft hiring in the Windows, Teams, and Office groups has also surfaced.
Netflix
Founder – Marc Randolph, Reed Hastings
Year – 1997
Laid Off – 450 Employees
The biggest streaming platform, in a surprising turn of events, announces that it is going to lay off 150 of its employees across the company. Although it was not a huge number still it became the talk of the town. Some of Netflix’s sudden decision has led to its slower growth of revenue, which is said to be the prime reason for laying 150 employees off. According to Netflix, it is basically done for the cost-cutting of the streaming giant. Netflix recently has lost over 2 Lakhs of their subscribers and is said to lose more, this is one of the reasons for their slower growth of revenue. In the month of May, Netflix again laid off 300 of its employees and again the reason is cost cutting.
Founder – Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Noah Glass
Year – 2006
Laid Off – ~100 Employees
Twitter is an American communications company founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass on March 21, 2006. Currently headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter is one of the biggest social media platforms that has been all over in the news in relation to one of the biggest acquisitions in modern times ($44 bn), led by billionaire techie, Elon Musk, who eventually backed off from the same and was sued legally, as a result of it. Amidst the confusion related to the Elon Musk-Twitter acquisition deal and the legal battle that laid ahead, Twitter announced that it would be sending home 30% of its staff from the recruiting team. The company that has more than 7000 employees working for it, will be laying off somewhere around 100 employees, as far as the WSJ report goes, dated July 7, 2022.
BlueStacks
Founder – Rosen Sharma, Jay Vaishnav, Suman Saraf
Year – 2011
Laid Off – 60+ Employees
BlueStacks was founded by Rosen Sharma, Jay Vaishnav, Suman Saraf in 2011. Currently headquartered in Campbell, California, United States, BlueStacks is known as the 2nd largest PC gaming platform in the world that aims to bring the PC gamers and the Android gaming library. The pouring demand for Android smartphones has helped the company witness humongous growth throughout the year. This popular Android emulator platform has laid off 60 Indian employees, as per reports dated July 20, 2022. BlueStacks has reportedly informed a majority of the employees via video calls on July 18, 2022, that their services would not be needed anymore.
Along with India, the company has also cut down its workforce in many other countries as well, from its offices in London, Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing. The total count of layoffs might be as high as 150 employees as well, ranging between 120-150, according to the reports. The reason behind the layoffs is internal restructuring. BlueStacks has offered 1 month of salary as severance pay to the laid-off employees along with medical benefits, as mentioned by sources.
TikTok
Founder – Zhang Yiming
Year – 2016
Laid Off – 100+ Employees
TikTok is a short-form video hosting service platform that is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. TikTok has achieved sensational growth in India and across the world for its viral, short-form content, which even resulted in several countries complaining and banning TikTok. The platform is still growing with 8 new users joining TikTok each second. It has over 1 bn monthly active users, as of July 2022.
The popular, controversial ByteDance subsidiary TikTok has reportedly started reducing its workforce by laying off staff working in the EU, EK, and US. These layoffs, according to Wired and some other news and media networks might affect 100+ TikTok employees, which currently work with a workforce of around 10,000 employees across the globe. The TikTok layoffs are in line with the global restructuring initiatives of the company.
Unacademy
Founder – Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh, Roman Saini, Sachin Gupta
Year – 2015
Laid Off – 600+ Employees
One of the biggest EdTech companies in India shocked everyone this year when they decided to lay off 10% of their workforce which is 600 employees. It was a sudden decision in the month of April. The reasons for this layoff were said to be that the performances of the employees were not good enough. Apart from that, there is a potential funding slowdown in India for startups, which has also been said to be the reason for this decision.
Vedantu
Founder – Anand Prakash, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena, Vamsi Krishna
Year – 2011
Laid Off – 624 Employees
Yes, another popular Edtech Vedantu has laid a good number of employees. In this month only, they laid off 424 employees both full-time and contractual. Before that, this year it laid off 200 of its employees. The reason for this is to increase their Capital runway as per Vedantu. Apart from that, the reopening of schools and classes being conducted offline, are also said to be the reason for the layoffs of the Edtechs.
Cars24
Founder – Gajendra Jangid, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal, Vikram Chopra
Year – 2015
Laid Off – 600 Employees
Cars24 said goodbye to over 600 employees of the company, which is 6% of their workforce. The fired people including employees from different departments and roles. The company has not provided any special reason for the layoff and has only stated that it is based on the performance of the employees. Every year employees are laid off if they are not providing their very best. Cars24 decision of firing its employees comes at a time when the company is looking to expand itself globally.
Meesho
Founder – Sanjeev Barnwal, Vidit Aatrey
Year – 2015
Laid Off – 150 Employees
Meesho, in a sudden and surprising move, fired 150 employees of the company from their grocery business in the month of April. The popular reselling startup in India had its grocery business called Farmiso, which has now been renamed Meesho Superstore. The company is in the discussion to merge the grocery store with its main app. The reorganization of the store is said to be the reason for the layoffs. This is also based on their performance in the business till now and their efficiency of adapting themselves to the new form of Meesho Superstore. Meesho also has an exciting business model. Also, don’t forget to dive into Meesho’s marketing strategy if you are curious about how it works.
Better.Com
Founder – Eric Wilson, Erik Bernhardsson, Shawn Low, Viral Shah, Vishal Garg
Year – 2016
Laid Off – 3000 Employees
Probably the most controversial layoff that has been done is by Better.com. The company was facing the heat since last year when it fired over 900 of its employees over a single Zoom call. In this year only, they have laid off almost 3000 of their employees. As per the company, the reason for the layoff is based on the performance of the employees. They have stated that the employees are fired because of the lack of productivity and their inefficiency in work. Since December 2021, the company has fired almost 50% of its workforce.
Blinkit
Founder – Albinder Dhindsa
Year – 2013
Laid Off – 5% of Workforce
Blinkit, previously known as Grofers is an online grocery shopping platform, recent in the month of March it has laid off some of its employees. It is said to be 5% of their workforce. The layoff has been done in mostly three cities, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The company has spent almost INR 600 Crores to focus on their 10 minutes delivery offering. Apart from laying off their employees, the online grocery platform is also delaying the payments of the vendors. The main reason for the layoff is said to be cost-cutting.
OkCredit
Founder – Gaurav Kumar, Aditya Prasad, Harsh Pokharna.
Year – 2017
Laid Off – 40
OkCredit is a digital ledger company and on a shocking front, the company laid off around 40 of its employees in the month of February. The organisation said that the reason for the sudden decision was because of the company’s changes in their priority. This has led to the restructuring of the company and the roles of the employees in the company which has led to the dismissal of several employees from the company.
Furlenco
Founder – Ajith Karimpana
Year – 2012
Laid Off – 200
Furlenco is a startup that provides rented furniture to its customers. The company is said to lay off almost 200 of its employees. It is also reported that the startup has stopped all their operation in the cities like Kolkata, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Mysuru. The company has given restructuring as the main reason for the firing of their employees, the staffs mostly belong to the customer support and grievance management departments.
Trell
Founder – Agrawal, Sachan, Arun Lodhi, Bimal Kartheek Rebba
Year – 2016
Laid Off – 300
Nothing seems to be going right for the Social commerce startup Trell. Amidst its investigation of its alleged financial irregularities, it is said to have decided to fire 300 of its employees almost 50% of their workforce. The situation that has led to this decision is mainly the investigation that is going on by EY India. However, the company gave out the reason for restructuring and strengthening the company for the layoff. The roles that are not needed are cut off from the company.
Ford
Founder – Henry Ford
Year – 1903
Laid Off – 580
The American multinational automobile manufacturer Ford, on the month of April, announced that they are laying off 580 of its US employees. This decision comes right after when the company announced that the will restructure the company and will focus on the making of electric vehicles. The dismissal is mainly done by the engineering department as the making of electric vehicles required different skill sets. Therefore, as per the company, it is done for the future needs of the company.
Noom
Founder – Saeju Jeong, Artem Petakov
Year – 2008
Laid Off – 500
Noom is a wellness app that deals with tracking the weight of a person and also focuses on mental health. The company in the month of April announced the dismissal of 500 employees which is almost 25% of its workforce. The layoff is done because the sole reason for changing the coaching model. The strategy of coaching has been changed, and the employees were dismissed for the betterment of the business.
Robinhood
Founder – Vladimir Tenev, Baiju Bhatt
Year – 2013
Laid Off – 300
Consumer investing and trading service company, Robinhood before announcing its financial performance in the first quarter of 2022 announced that they are going to layoff their 9% of its employees that is 300 of its employees. All the 300 employees are their permanent employees. The company went public last year in 2021 but they face a decline in trading, as per reports, this is said to be the main reason for the dismissal.
Nestlé
Founder – Henri Nestlé
Year – 1866
Laid Off – 104
Nestlé is a Swiss multinational food and drink conglomerate. In a sudden decision, the food processing giant has decided to close down its Sweet Earth food facility that is in California. This has laid to the laying off of 104 employees. The decision comes after, the plant-based meat company was seen to have negative growth and experience losses. Nestle acquired Sweet Earth Food Facility in 2017, it sells plant-based meat food items.
Tesco
Founder – Jack Cohen
Year – 1919
Laid Off – 1600
Tesco is the biggest supermarket chain in Britain, now the supermarket chain is looking for a major overnight transformation. They are mostly shutting down the meat and fish counters of 300 stores because of low demand. This decision may lead to the layoff of 1600 employees of Tesco. The job cuts are followed as the supermarket chain is on the verge of reorganising itself.
Unilever
Founder – Antonius Johannes Jurgens, Samuel van den Bergh, Georg Schicht
Year – 1929
Laid Off – 1500
Unilever, the consumer goods multinational company is on the verge to announce 1500 job cuts from their company. This will be valid worldwide, the decision comes after its failure to buy the consumer health division of GlaxoSmithKline. Unilever has decided to opt for a more competitive operating model and reorganize the company for its growth. and to be more responsive to consumer trends.
Mfine
Founder – Prasad Kompalli, Ashutosh Lawania
Year – 2017
Laid Off – 500
Mfine is a digital health platform based in Bangalore that provides services like doctor consultations, diagnostic tests and others. The health platform’s sudden turn of events has laid off almost 500 employees of the company. It is almost 50% of their workforce. The company hired employees even in the month of April but after the struggle to raise funds started increasing, it decided to lay off its employees.
Klarna
Founder – Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Niklas Adalberth
Year – 2005
Laid Off – 700
Klarna is a Swedish fintech company that deals with online financial services. In a pre-recorded video the CEO of the company forwarded the news to the employees that the company will lay off 10% of the global workforce. Almost 700 employees will be affected by this decision. The CEO said that the Ukraine-Russia war and a likely recession are the reason behind this drastic step.
Cineplex
Founder – Ellis Jacob, Garth Drabinsky, Gerald W. Schwartz
Year – 1999
Laid Off – 5000
Cineplex is a movie theatre chain in Canada. The pandemic situation has created many problems throughout the world, the theatre chain also faced a problem due to this. The company in the month of January announces that it has to lay off 5000 employees of their as theatres are shutting down in Ontario. This decision comes after the surge of the Omicron variant of Corona in the country. However, the layoff is said to be a temporary one.
Primark
Founder – Arthur Ryan
Year – 1969
Laid Off – 400
The UK-based multinational fashion retailer Primark has decided to cut off 400 employees of theirs in the month of January. As per reports, the decision was taken to simplify the management structure. As the omicron variant surged and the inflation seems to get serious, the sales of Primark were hit. Now to restructure the company, layoff was needed.
Royal Mail
Founder – Henry VIII
Year – 1516
Laid Off – 700
The postal company of Britain, Royal Mail has been present for centuries. The company in January 2022 decided to cut off 700 employees of theirs. This decision comes after the company faced problems because of Covid, which has led them to delays in deliveries. The performance of the postal company was criticised, therefore to bring change and restructure the company, they decided to fire their 700 employees.
DiDi
Founder – Cheng Wei, Zhang Bo, Wu Rui
Year – 2012
Laid Off – 3000
Chinese Ridesharing service DiDi has decided to lay off 20% of its workforce in the month of February. Approximately 3000 employees lost their jobs because of this decision. The reason for this decision is said to be the regulatory pressure that the company faced since an investigation was launched against the company last year. With its shares facing a huge decline and the company suffering a loss, the decision was taken to analyse the whole matter.
Conde Nast
Founder – Condé Nast
Year – 1909
Laid Off – 90% of the Workforce
Conde Nast is one of the biggest global media companies, home to some iconic brands like Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair. On a quite shocking front, the Magazine giant announced that they will lay off 90% of employees in Russia and will halt the distribution of Vogue Russia and other publications of theirs. The biggest reason for this decision was said to ve the Ukraine invasion done by Russia, the company has cut off their term permanently with Conde Nast Russia.
Rupeek
Founder – Sumit Maniyar
Year – 2015
Laid Off – 200
Rupeek is a digital gold loan provider company whose headquarters is situated in Bangalore, India. It is present in over 35 cities. The company laid off almost 200 of its employees which is 10-15% of its workforce. The layoff has been done from different departments and teams. Rupeek gave the reason for cost-cutting for firing its employees, the company is looking forward to making its structure leaner and more compatible.
Coinbase
Founder – Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam
Year – 2012
Laid Off – 1100
Coinbase is an online platform from which you can buy and sell cryptocurrency. The employees of the company work remotely and it doesn’t have any headquarters. It is considered the biggest crypto exchange platform. On a very shocking note, the company has now announced that it is going to lay off 1100 of its employees that almost 18% of its workforce. According to the company, the decision has been taken to control and manage the expenses of the company with the ongoing situation in the market.
CityMall
Founder – Angad Kikla and Naisheel Vardhan
Year – 2019
Laid Off – 191
The three-year-old E-commerce startup CityMall stuns everyone when it announces and layoff 191 of its employees. The Gurugram-based startup even after raising $75 million, added its name to the list of startups that have laid off their employees in the year 2022. The reason for this layoff as stated by the company is the structural changes that are taking place in the system.
Byju’s
Founder – Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath
Year – 2011
Laid Off – 2500
The biggest Edtech in India, Byju’s on sudden note, took a drastic decision and laid off 2500 employees. The unicorn, even after reaching a valuation of over $21 billion, decided to sack its employees. The reason they have stated for this decision is to cut cost of the company.
Tesla
Founder – Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning
Year – 2003
Laid Off – 200
Tesla which was working on its Autopilot advanced driver assistance features has faced a sudden shock. In an unexpected turn of events, Tesla has laid off 200 employees who were working on the autopilot feature, this decision comes after Elon Musk asked the company to decrease the headcount by 10%.
Common Reasons for the Layoffs
Big companies and organisations are facing problems and many of them are laying off their employees in response to that in 2022. There are multiple reasons, varying from company to company. Some of the common reasons for the layoff are:
- Companies are not able to adapt to the situations after the lockdown and pandemic.
- Inflation is on the rise again.
- Companies facing financial difficulties.
- The slowdown of funding in the business world.
- The Ukraine invasion by Russia has led to many companies stopped their business with the latter.
- The inefficiency of employees.
- Restructure and modernisation of a company.
Companies That Have to Freeze Their Hiring
With the economy of the world facing jeopardy and several other reasons, a number of companies have frozen their hiring and they are:
- Meta has frozen their hiring and it is said to be lasting throughout the year. The main reasons, the company has given are the industry-wide downturn, Ukraine invasion, and privacy data changes.
- Wayfair has frozen their hiring for 90 days and again the reason is the situation with the economy of the world.
- Twitter freezes their hiring and many of its top employees are getting fired, the sole reason is the ownership change of the company, as it now belongs to Elon Musk.
Companies That Might Layoff Their Employees
Although these companies haven’t taken the drastic step of firing their employees. There is a big chance that the companies might take the unwanted decision sooner or later. These companies are:
- Amazon is said to be overstaffed as they have hired lots of people in their warehouses and it has led to the slowdown of productivity. During the pandemic, it was said to be understaffed because of Covid leave, but with the return of the workforce in the warehouse, it turn into the opposite.
- Walmart is also going through the same problem as Amazon, it is now overstaffed and is looking forward to reviving from the declination of the profit that the company faced.
Conclusion
Various companies are taking the step of firing their employees as mentioned above the reason varies from economic conditions to the pandemic to the restructuring of the company, and even the inefficiency of the employees. Apart from all these there also seems to be a slowdown in funding and pressure by investors to make the company more and more profitable. With the current global economic situation, it seems like the worst is yet to come.
FAQs
Why Companies are laying off their employees?
Companies are firing employees for various reasons that vary from economic conditions to the pandemic to the restructuring of the company, and even the inefficiency of the employees.
Why is Better.com laying off employees?
Better.com laid off employees citing the reason efficiency is a big concern for the company.
Who founded Lido Learning?
Sahil Sheth founded Lido Learning in the year 2019.
