Zoom to lay off 15% of its staff as company admits to ‘post-pandemic’ challenges
Video conferencing platform Zoom’s parent company has announced it will lay off 15 per cent of its workforce, becoming the latest in a slew of tech companies that have cut staff jobs in recent months.
In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Zoom Video Communications chief executive Eric Yuan said the layoffs will affect all parts of the organisation.
He also announced he would be taking a 98 per cent pay cut and forgo his executive bonus. Other executives will also be taking paycuts, he said.
“As the CEO and founder of Zoom, I am accountable for these mistakes and the actions we take today– and I want to show accountability not just in words but in my own actions,” Mr Yuan was quoted as saying in the memo, reported by CNN.
“To that end, I am reducing my salary for the coming fiscal year by 98 per cent and foregoing my FY23 corporate bonus.”
He added that the company had added staff “rapidly” during the early days of the Covid pandemic to support the boom in demand for video conferencing.
“Within 24 months, Zoom grew 3x in size to manage this demand while enabling continued innovation,” he wrote.
Zoom’s CEO announces layoffs for 15% of the company — about 1,300 workers.
He also said he’s slashing his own salary by 98%:
“As the CEO & founder of Zoom, I am accountable for these mistakes … I want to show accountability not just in words but in my own actions.”
- Eric Yuan pic.twitter.com/aW9F2OMCE6— Bigad Shaban (@BigadShaban) February 7, 2023
He added that while people and businesses continue to rely on the platform, global economic conditions have forced it to cut jobs.
The company’s stocks fell last year as pandemic restrictions were lifted and more workers returned to offices, reported CNN.
“We are seeing that people and businesses continue to rely on Zoom,” he said.
“But the uncertainty of the global economy, and its effect on our customers, means we need to take a hard look inward to reset ourselves so we can weather the economic environment, deliver for our customers and achieve Zoom’s long-term vision,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.
Zoom is the latest among big tech companies that have laid off employees in the current post-pandemic economic downturn.
Earlier, tech giants like Microsoft, Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon.com and Twitter also announced similar layoffs.
Over 95,000 tech employees worldwide have lost their jobs since the beginning of January, said specialist site Layoffs.fyi.
